The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, began his institutional visit to Belfast this morning with a meeting with the Lord Mayor, Ryan Murphy, saying they had "found a great deal of common ground", such as "the same vision of an inclusive society, in which economic progress reaches everyone" in areas such as housing. "There are many possibilities for collaboration with Catalonia, such as in the field of research institutions, innovation and social policies," he said.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Aragonès, who will also meet with Michelle O'Neill today, gave a "very positive"assessment of the Government's foreign action, which, he said, has been based on "trying to work on the basis of points in common".

The President stated that "in these three years we have turned the Generalitat de Catalunya's foreign action inside out like a sock” and added that "we have done everything that could not be done in 10 years, in the area of relations with community institutions, with other governments, and with regard to states and stateless nations".

Along the same lines, the head of the Catalan Government emphasised that "we have had very strong links with international organisations, resuming work with United Nations agencies and the World Health Organization"."Catalonia once again has a voice in the world and those doors that we have been knocking on are opening for us. And this does not happen overnight, nor does it happen by chance," he said.