The times are exciting ones, as we Americans are witnessing the formation of a new administration under President Bush and as you Germans are experiencing new expectations in an evolving Europe. Let me first thank the organizers of this meeting, the Foundation for Development and Peace in Bonn in cooperation with the Aspen Institute here in Berlin. The City of Berlin has been wonderfully generous in providing this beautiful space. So I am proud that the United States Embassy has given its support, intellectually and materially, to help make this gathering possible. By the same token, in the German-American context, we know that the depth of our friendship provides a firm basis for us to face together common societal and international challenges.
Modern presidents tend to take new initiatives.
At the end of the day, however, they operate more from the perspective of continuity than of radical rupture. This continuity is especially salient in the field of foreign policy, where the national interests of the United States enjoy stability and where support for our engagement in the world enjoys consensus among our people. The debate is necessary for the conduct of foreign policy in a democratic system. The European Union, while representing in one sense a larger population than America s and considerable economic power, is still fashioning its approach to partnership with the United States as it advances a European debate about structures, about the relationship of local, national and supra-national authority, in essence about its identity. Germany is central to that evolving identity and to Europe s global role.