MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scotland and Wales to sign a cooperation agreement at the Cardiff independence summit

The first ministers of Scotland and Wales, John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth, were due to sign an agreement on future collaboration in areas of shared interest on Monday afternoon, after meeting in Cardiff with Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill, in the first face-to-face gathering of the three since ap Iorwerth took office in May.

It is the first time since devolution began in 1999 that all three devolved administrations in the United Kingdom are led by figures who favor independence. Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald also attended the morning meeting, held with the leaders acting as party representatives. A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said the changed political landscape justifies practical cooperation on energy, the economy and relations with Europe, as well as on constitutional questions and the right to self-determination.

Their positions are not equivalent. Swinney and O'Neill openly call for referendums, while ap Iorwerth has ruled out pushing for one during his party's first term in government and has announced a national commission to prepare the ground. His margin is narrow: Plaid Cymru won 43 of the Senedd's 96 seats in the May 7 election, six short of a majority, and governs as a minority. Reform UK came second with 34 seats and is the main opposition; Labour fell to nine, its worst result in more than a century, losing the Welsh government for the first time since 1999. That election also introduced the Senedd's expansion from 60 to 96 members under a proportional list system.

Swinney said this is a decisive moment and that the peoples of Scotland, Wales and Ireland are entitled to decide their own future. O'Neill said the interests of people across the island of Ireland have never been served from Westminster. McDonald said the trajectories differ but share an insistence that each people should decide.

The meeting comes days after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham appeared to open the door to a second Scottish referendum if there were clear public support, comparing it to the mechanism for Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement provides that the Northern Ireland secretary must call such a poll when it appears likely a majority would vote for a united Ireland. Swinney welcomed the apparent shift in tone, but Burnham later clarified that another Scottish referendum remains off limits. In 2014, Scotland voted to remain in the United Kingdom by 55% to 45%.

Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, the DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly, criticized O'Neill's participation; in Northern Ireland both posts carry identical powers. Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar called for a focus on health and education, and Reform UK Wales questioned the meeting. The UK government said Burnham believes strongly in the union. The three leaders will meet him next month, in talks where reform of the Barnett formula, the mechanism used to calculate devolved spending, is expected to return.