Further work needs to be done in implementing the Belfast Agreement, SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said today.
In a statement issued on the eve of the actual fourth anniversary of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Durkan said there has been much progress since 1988.
"We are now building the new partnership politics that the SDLP has advocated ever since our foundation," the Foyle MLA argued.
"By working together, we hope to break down the divisions and distrust in our society and on our island. Our ultimate goal must be the unity of Ireland - a unity of people, a unity of prosperity, a unity of peace.
"For the first time ever, all major parts of the Agreement are being implemented but much remains to be done.
"The SDLP wants to see: the deepening of the North-South agenda and the bringing together of representatives from the two Irish parliaments, the Assembly and the Daíl in a North-South Parliamentary Forum.
"We also want to see further progress on decommissioning - especially by loyalist groups who have so far evaded their responsibilities, greater de-militarisation and the conversion of Army bases to civilian use, better recognition of the sense of grief and grievance of victims and the creation of an all-Ireland human rights agenda."
Just 24 hours after the IRA confirmed it had carried out a second act of weapons decommissioning, Mr Durkan contrasted the early days of the Agreement with the situation today.
"In the immediate aftermath of the Agreement there was stalemate and dispute," he noted.
"We have now set out on a better course," he said.