PM welcomes Prime Minister Gonzi to Number 10
Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to Number 10 on Tuesday 10 May, 2011.
Read the transcript of their opening remarks:
Prime Minister
Well, it’s great to welcome my friend Lawrence, the Maltese Prime Minister, here to Number 10 Downing Street. We work very closely together in the European Union, and I think we have a lot to discuss today.
First of all, I’d like to thank Prime Minister Gonzi and everyone in Malta for the huge help that you gave to help with the evacuation of British citizens from Libya. We really are grateful for the very rapid cooperation and coordination that you helped to provide, and I’m sure today we will want to talk not just about European issues and trade issues and bilateral issues, but also what we can do to help make progress in North Africa and the relations we have with the countries of North Africa. I think your experience and knowledge and relationships will really help us to understand that region better.
So I’m looking forward to our discussions today, but most of all you’re very welcome here in London.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi
Thank you very much, David. It is a pleasure to be here. It’s an opportunity to emphasise once again the very strong relationship that exists between Malta and the United Kingdom. It is a relationship that goes back a long number of years, but that has strengthened since joining the European Union. It has brought us together. I am looking at the opportunity to continue to grow and to look also at seeing the business relationship and the commercial relationship between our two countries. There’s important items on the European Union agenda which we need to discuss as well, and I look forward to continuing to do this in the future. Thank you.
Prime Minister
Thank you.