the House of Commons that condemned the American Christmas bombings against North Vietnam between 18 and 29 December 1972. As a consequence, Canadian-American relations which were already under stress because of the mutual contempt between Nixon and Trudeau, reached a post-war nadir. Nixon was infuriated by the resolution and refused to see the Canadian ambassador in Washington in protest. Prompted by Halstead, who was known as a proponent of economic "rebalancing" by seeking closer economic ties with the EEC, Trudeau made a visit to Brussels in October 1973 to see François-Xavier Ortoli, the president of the European Commission. Ortoli refused Trudeau's request for a free trade agreement with the EEC, saying that was out of the question, but did agree to open talks on lowering tariffs between Canada and the EEC. United Kingdom Trudeau attached little importance to relations with Britain. While he shot down a suggestion by one of his ministers to turn Canada into a republic in 1968, he treated the monarchy with a certain bemused contempt. Britain's decision in 1973 to join the European Economic Community (EEC) as the European Union was then known, confirmed Trudeau's view that the United Kingdom was a declining power that had little to offer Canada while the way that Japan had replaced Britain as Canada's second-largest trading partner was taken as further confirmation of these views. However, Trudeau was attached to the Commonwealth, believing it was an international body that allowed Canada to project influence in the Third World. Germany Trudeau had an especially close friendship with the Social Democratic West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, whom he greatly liked both for his left-wing politics and as a practical politician who was more concerned about getting things done rather than with ideological questions. Schmidt was sympathetic towards Trudeau's "rebalancing" concept, telling Trudeau that he wanted West Germany to have two North American partners instead of one, and promised at a 1975 meeting to use West German influence within the EEC to grant Canada better trade terms in exchange for Canada spending more on its NATO commitments. After meeting Schmidt, Trudeau performed a volte-face on NATO, speaking at a press conference of how much he valued NATO as an alliance that was established for collective security in Europe. To show his approval of Schmidt, Trudeau not only agreed to spend more on NATO, but insisted that the Canadian Army buy the German-built Leopard