Alliance's deputy leader has denied his party is "sitting on the fence" in declining an invitation to join a nationalist event in Dublin on a united Ireland.
Stephen Farry said the party is "content to take part in debate" but he described the conference on Saturday as a "rally" to endorse Irish unity.
Alliance is the only non-unionist party on the island not attending the 'Together We Can' event being staged in the 3Arena by campaign group Ireland's Future.
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Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood are among those scheduled to speak this weekend.
But the Alliance Party branded the conference a "rally to endorse a united Ireland" and said it was "not an appropriate event for us to participate in".
Mr Farry denied "snubbing" Ireland's Future, saying they have engaged with the group in the past "and will continue to do so in the future as well".
The North Down MP said they were "not sitting on the fence" as they "don't buy into this notion that politics here is binary and shaped entirely around the constitutional question".
He told the BBC's Nolan Show: "We are a cross-community party and we're proudly so. We have people who are pro-Union, we have people who are pro-united Ireland, and many people like myself who are open-minded on the issue.
"The very particular event on Saturday has been billed as support for constitutional change, so in that context us going along would be seen as us as a cross-community party endorsing a united Ireland, and that's not where we are as a party at this present moment in time.
"Obviously we are not ducking any particular issue here. We know there's an active live debate happening around the constitutional future.
"We don't think it's the biggest priority for Northern Ireland at present - there's the cost-of-living crisis and getting the Executive back up and running again and getting the Assembly fully functioning - but we do respect that there is debate happening and we are content to take part in debate."
Ireland's Future board member Brian Feeney told The Irish News the decision by Alliance was "wrong and a mistake".
He claimed that it meant the party was "aligning itself with unionists who are sticking their fingers in their ears".
Reacting to the comments, Mr Farry said: "Well if people want Alliance support for change down the line, going round putting labels on people would seem to be fairly counterproductive and an unwise thing to do.
"I think what's more important is people respect that Alliance is a cross-community party."
The Alliance Party became the third-largest in May's Assembly election after more than doubling its number of MLAs.
It currently does not take a position on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland and designates as neither unionist nor nationalist in Stormont's power-sharing institutions.
Earlier this year Alliance leader Naomi Long said her party would "undoubtedly" take a position on the constitutional question at some point in the future.
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