Keynote Address.

• Author: Hillman, Kirsten
• Position: The United States and Canada: Outlook For Bilateral Relations in 2021

Ambassador Kirsten Hillman

Moderator: The Honorable Jane Harman

AMBASSADOR KIRSTEN HILLMAN: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jane. Thank you for the very kind welcome, and I very much love your idea of a get-together lunch. I can't wait till the day that we can all be sitting around tables again together, talking in a face-to-face way. These are good opportunities as well, but I think we all miss the person-to-person contact. So, thank you so much for inviting me. Greetings to the Executive Committee of CUSLI and to everyone else who's joining today. I'm really glad to be with you.

So, I'm going to focus on two things in my remarks today. Quite briefly, opportunities for bilateral cooperation with the incoming Biden administration, and I'd like to reflect a little bit on Canada-U.S. cooperation during COVID times, and what I think that means for our two countries going forward.

So, starting with the election in transition. Obviously, the transition's well underway. Prime Minister Trudeau and President-elect Biden had a very broadranging and a very positive phone call just a little over a day after the election was called for the president-elect.

The two leaders know each other well. They have a strong and, I would say, warm relationship, which I think is important. It's not the only feature to being able to work together well, but it certainly helps.

They also, very importantly, share strong policy objectives. And they share not only specific policy objectives, but they also share the view that both countries should be working together with allies to make things better, not only within our own countries, but globally, around the world.

So, as we all know, the president-elect has identified, for now, four core priorities: fighting COVID, economic recovery, climate change, and racial equity. And underlying all of those, as I see it, is a strong objective of working with allies and partners whenever possible to increase the chances of success in being able to implement those policies.

And if we look at the appointments that the president-elect has been making, I think that we are--and speaking for my country--I think that we're really encouraged because, first of all, there are a lot of people within those groups that we know well, that we worked with before, that we already have good relationships with. But also, we see people with a strong track record of working with allies and cooperating in ways to help us grapple with some of the trickiest problems that are facing our countries and our globe. So, I think that that is all very good, and we are encouraged by it all.

On the Canadian side, you know, our core priorities, as I say, are very much aligned with those four that I've just mentioned. But, in truth, much like here, job one--job one, two, three, four, five, and six--is fighting the pandemic, keeping our citizens safe, following the advice of our experts, making sure that we get ourselves into a place where our lives can return to some sense of normalcy. And, while doing that, supporting Canadians as we do it, and moving towards a sustainable economic recovery, and maybe taking advantage of some of the things that we've learned through this pandemic to make that economic recovery more innovative, more sustainable, better than it maybe otherwise could have been.

There's also great potential between our two governments for cooperation in a variety of other ways. Obviously, on climate change--we have a deep commitment to the Paris Agreement, to decarbonization of our economy, both within our country but also the global partnerships that are required in order for us to do this as a globe.

We see a lot of potential for cooperation in our energy partnership. We have a very strong and multi-faceted energy...