3 June 2010
Ottawa, Ontario
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the following remarks at the conclusion of his meeting with David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
“David, it is a delight to be here. I do want to take the opportunity to congratulate you in person on your victory and historic government you formed here in Britain. We have, as you said, met many times over the years. I have watched your progress with great interest, and I certainly look forward to working together.
“We share much in common. As you know, our parties of course have deep historic linkages as well, so it is going to be a real pleasure to work with you going forward, and I should just also say I am delighted to be one of the first foreign leaders to come here, because, as you know, our relationship with Britain is one of our oldest and dearest in the entire world, and I think it’s all very fitting that we are able to do this. And I certainly look forward to seeing you in a few weeks in Canada as we will follow up on our discussions. I also just want to, David, as well, through you really express our condolences to the people of Cumbria, to all the victims and their families, all of the people who have been affected by this terrible tragedy in that part of your country, and of course our condolences to the British people as a whole. I know this will be a day of some reflection.
“Once again, we had a good discussion. I would like to thank Prime Minister Cameron for the invitation today. We are obviously very pleased to congratulate him in person on his assumption of office and I look forward to welcoming him to Muskoka and Toronto.
“The G-20, which was the main subject of our conversation today, will focus on the global economy and on laying the foundations for sustainable and balanced growth. There are positive signs, but we are by no means out of the woods. The European financial situation is of concern, but at the same time we do welcome the steps that have been taken to address this situation.
“We need to follow through on our G-20 commitments, including stimulus, to avoid backsliding, but obviously once stimulus expires, restoring public finances must be a priority. We've talked about the necessity of fiscal consolidation across the world and the necessity of implementing clear and realistic plans to reduce deficits and bring our budgets back into balance.
“We discussed other G-20 areas of concentration, developing global goal strategies, the need for financial sector reform and, of course, resisting protectionism. And we are both working very hard to push forward the Canada-European Union trade discussions.
“On the G-8, we discussed our child and maternal health initiative. As David mentioned, the United Kingdom has been a historic leader on these issues. We also discussed the leading role the G-8 will continue to play in areas of peace and security, non-proliferation, terrorism and organized crime. The G-8 also has an important agenda in terms of accountability and ensuring that we live up to the commitments we have made over the years.
“I look forward to working closely with the United Kingdom and our other G-8 and G-20 partners in the lead-up to the summits and of course I look forward, David, to hosting you in Canada in a very short time, a very few weeks.
