Following the presidential elections in the United States, the aim now must be to seek early discussions with partners in the US in order to get a more precise idea of the country’s future foreign policy, but also to communicate our positions, interests and priorities at an early stage and feed them into the transition process.

I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to talk to many colleagues from the Senate and House of Representatives who will be attending the Security Forum in Halifax. There we will have the chance to discuss a whole range of topical foreign and security policy issues in a confidential setting.

My goal in my meetings with our Canadian friends is to develop our close partnership with Canada even further and to breathe life into it. The Strategic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Canada, which was signed recently in Brussels, provides an excellent basis for these talks, as does CETA in the field of trade and commerce. Now that CETA has been signed, it is to be hoped that it will be ratified quickly.