Can I say how much I welcome the debate that's before us today, on this important issue of engagement post Brexit? I do not accept the caricature that in order to be a Brexiteer, you are therefore not an internationalist, and you are an isolationist. That's certainly not my view. I'm very much an internationalist, and I think it's very important that we engage globally, and not just within Europe. And of course it's absolutely vital that we have a continued close relationship with the different regions within Europe post 29 March. I was an individual, of course, who voted to leave the European Union, but I do think that it's very important for this National Assembly, as an Assembly that has a look over the horizons that are beyond Wales, beyond the UK, and beyond 29 March.

We were told constantly, of course, during the referendum that it would be impossible to maintain a close relationship with other parts of Europe after Brexit, but, of course, that is absolutely not the case, and that's why my party was very pleased to see the new First Minister follow our lead, in appointing somebody who's responsible for international relations. And I'm very pleased to see that Eluned Morgan took on that post, given the wealth of experience that she had in Europe. And of course other groups in this National Assembly have also taken the opportunity to appoint international relations spokespeople. And it's great that Delyth Jewell has that privilege on behalf of Plaid Cymru, and I want to welcome her to her post.

I think that it's vitally important that, yes, the Welsh Government does develop its international relations strategy in terms of engagement around the world, and this, of course, is a very important part of it. But you're quite right to point out in your opening speech, Mick, about the need for this National Assembly, as an institution, also to have an international relations strategy, so that we can promote the work of the National Assembly outside of Wales, but also learn from other parts of the world too, in terms of how we operate and function as a devolved legislature within the successful union that, of course, is the United Kingdom.

Now, I have the privilege of representing the National Assembly as one of the members on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I've been a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly now for over a decade, and as part of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly's work, of course, we have the opportunity also to engage, in a different forum, with people from other legislatures within the UK, and of course the Republic of Ireland, and indeed some of the other islands that make up the British isles. And I find that that is a very useful way to work collaboratively with other parliamentarians, in terms of trying to explore some of the challenges that are often very common to all of us on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

I chair the European affairs committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, and that committee actually undertook a short inquiry about engagement with different European institutions following Brexit. It published a report about 18 months ago, and it looked at the value of engagement and collaboration that was already taking place—not just the inter-governmental collaboration, but we also did meet with the president of the Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, to have a discussion with him about the opportunities that might exist to still engage with the committee in the future. And it was very, very clear that there are a whole host of nations outside of the European Union that are already actively involved in different fora, which have been established for engagement. And some of the ones that he was referring us to were the Association of European Border Regions, for example, which of course is going to be increasingly prominent, I think, for us, in terms of our engagement going forward. It works very closely, of course, as Mick and Bethan will know, with the Committee of the Regions, and you don't have to be a member of the EU in order to engage with it.

So, I would very much encourage this National Assembly, and the Welsh Government, to seek some involvement with that particular organisation, as time goes forward, because I do think that there are huge opportunities for us in terms of international engagement post 29 March, and I think we ought to seize them, but we can only do that if we've got a proper strategy in place, both as a Parliament and in terms of the Welsh Government too.