Now, our work found that, in the past, the Welsh Government's activities then, in terms of international engagement, had been too patchy in our view, and incoherent, and it is important that we see this change. We made a total of 11 recommendations in our report, and I am pleased that the Minister has indicated that they've accepted or accepted in principle all of them—though we always question that term 'accept in principle', sometimes. We'll see how that goes.

But, turning to the first couple of recommendations, it's abundantly clear that Wales needs a new strategy of how we engage with the world after Brexit, or, actually, how we engage with the world full stop. Brexit is just an example of why we need to do it. This new strategy needs to be bold. It needs to set out the scale of our ambition as a nation. We must not be frightened of going perhaps that one step further than we would conventionally do. In leading on the development of the new strategy, we welcome the creation of the new Minister for international relations, with a seat at the Cabinet. However, it is clear to us that many aspects of international relations are cross-portfolio, and therefore we want to actually see more examples of that: economy, environment, education portfolios. It is clear that it is not a single subject area.

We want the Minister to lead on that co-ordination across Government, and, in the report, we did recommend a Cabinet sub-committee. We acknowledge that the Minister says this could be an appropriate mechanism, but she alludes to the need for full Cabinet discussions on internationalisation. I fully acknowledge this, but how do we have a formal structure that ensures a cross-portfolio approach? That's the question. It's all well and good having this informal concept, but we need a formal structure, and that's why I want some further information from the Minister today on the progress towards co-ordinating activities across Government, in addition to the bilateral meetings she intends to have with those colleagues, but where is the formal structure where that happens?

Wales's future role in Europe after Brexit was a perennial issue during the course of our work. It is clear to us that, whatever the eventual shape and outcome of Brexit—and I say that now, 'whatever the shape of the outcome of Brexit', because we still don't know—Europe and our relationship with the European Union will continue to be important in the years ahead. It is for this reason that we support the retention of the Welsh Government offices in Brussels.

We also heard that Wales has historically enjoyed the benefits of a number of European programmes, such as the student mobility programme, Erasmus+, and the research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Currently, it is the Welsh Government's position to advocate continued participation in those programmes through the UK. We want this ambition to go further so that, if the UK Government fails to secure this, then the Welsh Government should go ahead and explore securing participation in its own right in devolved areas and where there are clear benefits to Wales. I think this week's example of the HE student fee issue highlights how the UK Government may not be in synchronisation with the Welsh Government's thinking on our relationship with the EU and EU citizens.

This is what we are calling for in recommendation 5: for the Welsh Government to actually explore and have exploratory talks, and to report back to this Assembly in the autumn term, and, with the autumn term including 31 October, which is now the new deadline, perhaps it's appropriate that we do that, because that's the next cliff edge that we face.

In addition to the multilateral relationships and networks that we enjoy, Wales also has a number of bilateral relationships, which will continue to form an important part in Wales's external engagement work in the future. During our work, we've found that the countries and sub-state actors across the international stage that operate most successfully have clearly prioritised bilateral relationships based on common interests. In particular, the approach of the Basque Country and of Quebec were examples that we could learn from, and I am fully aware that the Basque Country have been to this institution and that we have had committees that have gone over to the Basque Country. They are an example of where we may want to learn how they manage the relationships and particularly bilateral relationships, and how they've prioritised them.

Our recommendation 6 calls on the Welsh Government to review the bilateral relationships that Wales currently has, in order to assess which of them can be strengthened and deepened in the future. I am pleased that the Minister, in her written response, has signalled that this work is under way, and again it would be helpful if she can give the Assembly an indication of timescales for the completion of this work, so that we have an understanding of where we are and where we can expect to be in the times ahead of us. We all know that time is going to be a major factor in the future.

Turning to the question of our diaspora, we are clear that more can be done to make use of that diaspora. Although definitive figures do not exist, a study published in 2006—and I accept that's 13 years ago—suggested that as many as 11 million people have Welsh ancestry in the USA alone. Better engagement with the Welsh diaspora could be the key to unlocking some of Wales’s ambitions for international relations after Brexit. Again, I'm aware that the Welsh caucus in Washington is an example of where we could be using some of that. 

Our report calls for the creation of an action plan for engaging that diaspora. However, the Minister’s written response suggests that the Welsh Government will not commit to this and instead is undertaking preliminary work to assess what is already happening in this area. I therefore ask the Minister to keep the committee updated on this work so that our ambitions can be realised. 

Turning to recommendation 10, whilst I do not wish to repeat arguments made previously in the Assembly about the need to improve inter-governmental mechanisms, I would like to give the Minister an opportunity, if she has the ability—and I've raised this with the Brexit Minister—perhaps to improve on the limited detail available in her written response, in particular, if she could confirm a date for when the publication of the review of the JMC will be available to us, because it's almost a year—it's actually a year—since the review was undertaken and we are not yet clear of any date of publication of that review, and it is critical to understand how Wales can have an input into various aspects of international relations. 

In terms of the Welsh Government’s overseas offices, we note the expansion in recent years of Wales’s presence abroad. However, it is vital that these offices know what they are doing and that their activities are in line with the forthcoming strategy. I note that the Minister’s response does not commit to an audit in the way that we have suggested. Perhaps she'd like to review that, because it is important we understand what is the purpose of the office, why is it where it is, how will we measure what it's doing, so that we can have a clear understanding that they are in the right place, doing the right thing for Wales.

Finally, I’d like to talk a little about Welsh soft power—this is to say Wales’s cultural and economic influence around the world. We heard that some of Wales’s unique assets—our language, our arts, our values—could be better used to carve out a niche for ourselves on the world stage. We have seen other nations such as Scotland and Ireland do exactly that. To achieve this we need to be clearer about what our unique selling points are and develop those in a way that gains international recognition. To that end, we recommended that the new international strategy places a greater emphasis on soft power. I am pleased that the Minister has accepted the need for this. I think it was evident when we were Brussels last how UK representation looked at Wales's soft power mechanisms as an example of how they may want to do that when we leave the EU. 

Dirprwy Lywydd, we are facing a period of seemingly accelerating flux and change across the world. Perhaps now is the time for us in Wales to redouble our efforts and to work together to ensure that our voice is heard on the international stage much louder than it has been. I commend this report to the National Assembly, and look forward to hearing the contribution of other Members today.