We are here this morning to meet the parties and hear their detailed response to the declaration made at Hillsborough.
That was the two prime ministers' best guess as to how we might move forward from here. And, of course, the parties will have their own comments on that.
But let us not be under any illusion. Any alternative must be acceptable to both traditions. Otherwise this is not going to work.
If people are only prepared to fight their own corner, then nothing the Prime Minister or the Taoiseach can do will help.
There will not be an executive acceptable to both traditions under the terms of the agreement.
It is that simple. Only the pro-agreement parties can decide whether the agreement moves forward or not.
The majority of people here want it to work. So, too, do people in the South and in Britain. So, too, do our many friends in Europe, the US and further afield.
And you only have to look at the horrors that are happening in the rest of the world to be reminded of what the alternative has been for much of the past 30 years.
None of us want that. But while the two governments will do all we can to reach agreement, none of us can impose it.
Statement by Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein chairman, arriving at yesterday's Stormont talks:
The Sinn Fein leadership met last week and studied the draft Hillsborough Declaration in detail. We reviewed it in the context of the Good Friday Agreement and of the peace process.
Our view is that the Hillsborough Declaration moves away from the Good Friday Agreement and makes the transfer of power and the establishment of the institutions conditional on the delivery of IRA weapons.
In our meetings with the governments today Sinn Fein will be proposing that the way forward lies in the triggering of d'Hondt and the establishment of the executive and other institutions, as agreed on Good Friday a year ago and promised many times since by the two governments.
I read in sections of today's press that Dublin government sources are being quoted saying that Sinn Fein has not formally rejected the Hillsborough Declaration. So that there is no uncertainty or confusion about this, and given this propensity to negotiate through the media - let me make it very clear that Sinn Fein formally rejects the Hillsborough Declaration.
It is rather ironic that it falls to us to remind the British and Irish governments of their responsibility to uphold and implement the Good Friday Agreement.
Later statement by Dr Mowlam, following round-table talks involving the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance, Progressive Unionists and Women's Coalition.
Some parties were attracted, others were not, by the approach laid out in the draft declaration that emerged from Hillsborough.
The general view at the meeting was that the crux of the problem is to create the conditions in which the decommissioning part of the agreement can be implemented and the executive formed.
Discussions now, therefore, will concentrate on ideas for creating those conditions, including the ideas in the draft declaration.