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2010 has certainly not had the happy start we were all hoping for.

Before January is half-way through we have had the disastrous earthquake in Haiti with all its appalling consequences.

I have been watching the aftermath from the United States where the relief effort has certainly been impressive. The sight of former Presidents Clinton and Bush joining President Obama symbolised the determination here to provide help which can make a real difference.

Amidst the disaster there have been many stories of miraculous survival.

I was particularly struck by the rescue of a small Haitian girl whose voice was heard from deep in a pile of rubble at the Caribbean supermarket in the Delmas neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince early on Sunday, more than four days after the earthquake. She had made it by eating dried fruit rolls in the wreckage of the supermarket and, amazingly, she had not been pinned down in the rubble and was not hurt.

One of the reasons I am in America is to promote the development of Atlantic Partnership, the organisation I founded a dozen years ago to try to make sure that America and Europe continue to work together as partners to try to overcome the original challenges which face our planet.

I spoke at a dinner in the British Embassy in Washington to a distinguished audience including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and many others.

In my view it remains the case that, as partners, America and Europe can make real progress on every issue, from helping Haiti to dealing with global warming; from stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to development world trade. If, on the other hand, these issues were to become cockpits of rivalry between the two the prospects of overcoming these challenges would recede.

This is not the work of a month or year. The arguments will run and run but it is certainly worth doing.