SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone. It’s a real pleasure to be able to receive the new Foreign Minister of Canada, Mélanie Joly, here in Washington at the State Department. I’m so glad we were able to get together so quickly. We spoke on the phone just a few days ago, and I’m really grateful to Mélanie for coming here so quickly.
We have a lot of work to do. We have our leaders getting together next week for the North American Leaders Summit as well as a meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden, so we’re going to spend some time working on that. But let me simply say that we have no closer friend, no closer partner, in the world than Canada. And virtually everything that we are doing, that we’re engaged in, we’re doing it together.
And so we have the world that we’re looking at together, but I’m just so grateful to have you here. (In French.)
FOREIGN MINISTER JOLY: Merci, (in French.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: (In French.)
FOREIGN MINISTER JOLY: Well, thank you, Tony, for these warm words of welcome of yours. It’s a pleasure for me to be with you and to be in Washington. I wanted to make sure as the new Foreign Affairs Minister for Canada to come here as my first visit and my first visit – my first trip outside of Canada since COVID.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Ah, right.
FOREIGN MINISTER JOLY: So at the same time, obviously, as a Minister in the Canadian cabinet, I wanted to make sure that we reaffirm the importance of our friendship with the U.S. This historic friendship is one that we have to take care of and that we must work on. In that context, it will be a pleasure for me to address some key issues, definitely making sure that we can continue to collaborate to fight climate change, to really also address the importance of fighting for democracies and protecting also our democratic institutions and values. And of course, since we have so many of our economic ties that really is making sure that we’re united, we need to make sure that we reinforce our supply chains as, of course, we are reopening the (inaudible) our border.
(In French.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Merci, (in French).
FOREIGN MINISTER JOLY: (In French.) Thank you so much. Thank you.
