I am delighted to be here this morning, and to have the opportunity to kick off the second day of this conference. For at least two reasons, I have a personal interest in the subject. In my own experiences in the Foreign Service, I have seen both the heights that a diverse society can reach and the pain experienced by a society torn apart by its differences. Those conversations have been, and continue to be, important to the collective and national interests of nations on both sides of the Atlantic. And, for that reason alone, such a conversation is critical because it is long overdue.
Democracies can and do disagree.
We have had vigorous debates over strategic and trade policy, and we will undoubtedly continue to do so. We can reliably predict hat the habit of cooperation in areas of military and commerce is so strong that we will resolve our differences as we have in the past. To date, we have not done so. We have acted like two old friends who were born and raised in the same hometown and exposed to the same fundamental values. Separated for a period of years, the two old friends have had different experiences and now they find it hard to talk about their common interests.