The Belfast Agreement is a "covenant of honour" which should remain whatever happens to the North, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said today.
In a bid to address unionist concerns that the Agreement was seen as temporary by nationalists in their pursuit of a united Ireland, the former Stormont Deputy First Minister insisted that the "structures and protections" of the Agreement should remain even if there was a united Ireland.
He said "under the principle of consent, if a majority of people vote in a referendum to remain within the United Kingdom, then it will.
"If a majority of people in the North (of Ireland) vote for a united Ireland, then there will be a united Ireland.
"Deciding on constitutional preferences should not involve calling into question any other part of the Agreement.
"Both unionists and nationalists are entitled to the assurance that all the protections for identities and interests, all of the institutions and all of the inclusion of the Agreement will endure."
Mr Durkan, in an address to sixth-formers at the Royal Belfast Academic Institution, said it was important that in the event of a united Ireland, the institutions in the north of the country would remain.
Political structures under the Agreement linking Ireland with Britain would also remain, he insisted, assuming more importance.
The Agreement's guarantees on equality and human rights protections would also continue the Foyle MLA argued.
"Any changes to be made to the Agreement upon unity or at any time afterward would be handled exactly as now, using the review provisions of the Agreement," he said.
"There would therefore have to be sufficient consensus between nationalists and unionists.
"That would provide unionists with their own guarantee of their position, right through into the future just as it provides the same guarantee to nationalists now.
"The SDLP's vision of a united Ireland is based on equality. The same rights, protections and inclusion that nationalist sort within Northern Ireland while it is in the United Kingdom must equally be guaranteed to unionists within a united Ireland."
Mr Durkan renewed his call for nationalist and republican parties throughout Ireland to join with the SDLP "in articulating this vision of unity in the context of the Agreement and the Agreement in the context of unity".
The SDLP leader said he had called for the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation to be reconvened in Dublin in a bid to reaffirm this commitment to the Agreement in the event of a united Ireland.
PA