They expanded trade, deepened alliances and underwrote billions in foreign aid.
Under Philippe Varin, the chief executive brought in to replace the controversial Christian Streiff last year, it has deepened alliances with BMW and Mitsubishi.
Disdaining such a vigorous Anglo-Saxon approach, most European bank bosses would probably prefer deepening alliances on the continent, inside the euro zone.
Mattis promised to implement Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy by reinvigorating American investment, working to strengthen the rule of law, increasing attention to the maritime space and deepening alliances.
Biden sets tasks for the next administration to achieve a "more peaceful and prosperous future," none explicitly related to freedom: deepening alliances in Asia and the Western Hemisphere, addressing climate change and terrorism, improving ties with regional powers.
But Tillerson and his Saudi counterpart bluntly outlined their deepening alliance to check Iran's influence in the region.
From a Microsoft voice assistant that integrates with Amazon's Alexa to a deepening alliance with Samsung and, most crucially, in its financial statements.
Since 2007, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) has helped support collaborations among the largest concentration of conservation scientists in the world, in Cambridge, U.K. Several years ago, CCI saw an opportunity to deepen such alliances after two university departments left a 1960s-era Brutalist concrete office building in the heart of the university.
Mr Varin says that he is open to deepening existing alliances with BMW, Ford, Fiat and Mitsubishi, but he is cool about a full-scale merger with another carmaker.
