Statement following the meeting of President Michael D. Higgins & Sabina Higgins with Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duches
Date: Tue 3rd Mar, 2020 | 16:11
President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins today welcomed Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Áras an Uachtaráin.
The couples discussed the close ties between the people of Ireland and Britain and the importance of continuing and deepening close relations between all of the peoples of these Islands.
President Higgins, Sabina and Their Royal Highnesses spoke of the challenges ahead, including the implications of the UK's departure from the European Union and the importance of continuing to build on the foundations of the Good Friday Agreement.
They also discussed the global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss and the urgent need to revisit the fundamentals of how we organise our economies and societies if we are to tackle these existential threats in a meaningful way.
The importance of removing obstacles that inhibit young people from building their skills and realising their aspirations for a truly fair and sustainable world, and the particular importance of responding to the vulnerabilities of young people was among the other topics discussed.
The meeting at Áras an Uachtaráin was the third time President Michael D. Higgins and Sabina Higgins have met The Duke of Cambridge and The Duchess of Cambridge. They met in Belgium in August 2014, at the centenary commemorations of the start of the First World War, and in July 2016, at an event marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.