Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials in London, and staff based at our high commission in Ottawa and at our consulates-general elsewhere in Canada, maintain frequent and regular contact with their Canadian counterparts on a wide range of domestic and international political issues. At ministerial level, recent contacts have included my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary’s meeting on 16 February 2009 with Peter Mackay, Canadian Minister of National Defence and chair of its Cabinet Foreign Affairs Committee, and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s telephone call on 17 March 2009 to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.