make full use of the expertise of Member State law enforcement officials seconded to non-EU countries, as well as consider the feasibility of posting EU agencies' liaison officers and magistrates in key third countries. Mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreements with third countries (United States, Japan11) are key instruments for international judicial cooperation, and the Commission will assess whether it is necessary to develop other bilateral or multilateral agreements with key third countries. Finally, the Union should further develop its relations with international organisations, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, and Interpol, and use multilateral forums such as the Global Counter Terrorism Forum more actively to promote best practices and meet common objectives. External aspects of security will be more comprehensively developed in the framework of the Strategic Review that the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission has initiated, as well as in the ongoing review of the European Neighbourhood Policy. 2. STRENGTHENING THE PILLARS OF THE EU ACTION In operational terms, working better and more closely together means, above all, that all actors involved – be it EU institutions and agencies, Member States or national law enforcement authorities – fully implement existing instruments. This also calls, where necessary, for new or more developed tools to maximise the added value of EU measures for information exchange, operational cooperation and other support. 2.1 Better information exchange The Union provides a number of tools to facilitate the exchange of information between national law enforcement authorities. They should be used to the full by the Member States. Where there are still critical gaps, we should assess whether additional EU tools are necessary. The Schengen Information System (SIS) is the most widely used information-sharing instrument today. Competent national authorities can use it to consult alerts on wanted or missing persons and objects, both inside the Union and at the external border. The SIS was upgraded in early 2015 to improve information exchange on terrorist suspects and to reinforce the efforts of Member States to invalidate the travel documents of persons suspected of wanting to join terrorist groups outside the EU. The Commission will look into possibilities to help Member States to implement travel bans set at national level. The Commission will evaluate the SIS in 2015-2016 to assess whether new operational needs require legislative changes, such as introducing additional categories to trigger alerts. To further strengthen security at the external borders, there should be fuller use of the SIS together with Interpol’s database on Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD). The Commission will help Member States to use automated border controls with checks of the SIS and the SLTD, and it will continue to monitor if Member States implement their obligation to provide data to the SLTD.12 The Commission is also updating the 11 12 Council Decisions 2009/820/CFSP of 23.10.2009 and 2010/88/CFSP/JHA of 30.11.2009. Common Position 2005/69/JHA of 24.1.2005. 5