WASHINGTON/OTTAWA:
US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought on Tuesday to turn the web page on the Trump era, stressing the countries’ deep ties and pledging to work collectively to counteract Chinese influence and address climate modify.
“The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada,” Biden told Trudeau through an electronic video hyperlink with the Canadian leader and prime aides. “That’s why you were my first call as president (and) my first bilateral meeting,” he mentioned.
After speaking for about two hours, the two leaders emerged and mentioned they planned to work closely collectively to beat the COVID-19 pandemic and combat climate modify, with a purpose of attaining net-zero emissions by 2050.
Trudeau also thanked Biden for reiterating U.S. assistance for the release of two Canadians held by China, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. “Human beings are not bartering chips,” Biden mentioned. “We’re going to work together until we get their safe return.”
Biden and Trudeau did not take inquiries following delivering their remarks.
Trudeau welcomed the Biden administration, citing in unique Washington’s renewed interest to climate modify in contrast to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Thank you, again, for stepping up in such a big way on tackling climate change. U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,” the prime minister mentioned.
Canada has frequently been a U.S. president’s very first foreign quit, but the COVID-19 pandemic turned the sit-down amongst the two leaders and some of their prime deputies into a virtual affair.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials, all wearing dark masks, sat at a extended table in a White House meeting area, close to a substantial video screen beaming in Trudeau’s image from Ottawa.
A Canadian government supply mentioned there had been no progress on the possibility of Canada accessing COVID-19 vaccines produced in the United States. Canada is at the moment getting doses from plants in Europe.
“We’re focused on ourselves, the United States is focused on itself. They feel they have a supply shortage, so there is no news on that front,” mentioned the supply, who requested anonymity offered the sensitivity of the scenario.
REKINDLED ALLIANCE
Biden irritated Ottawa shortly following taking workplace on Jan. 20 by blocking the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project to pump oil sands crude from Alberta to Nebraska, and proposing a “Buy American” system aimed at directing more U.S. spending toward domestic companies.
But the two leaders created clear they wanted to place the dispute behind them and work collectively.
The meeting drew scrutiny as an early view of Biden diplomacy. “Everyone around the world is watching this meeting very closely. They will want to get what the Canadians got and they won’t all succeed. This is the top level of access, the gold standard,” a senior Western diplomat in Ottawa mentioned.
“”We really feel we are off to the races right here,” the Canadian government source added.
Trudeau was the first world leader to congratulate Biden when the Democrat was declared the winner of the November election, illustrating the degree to which the close U.S. ally looks to move on from Trump’s four years in office.
The Republican former president, who often clashed with traditional allies on trade, imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel. He traveled only once to Canada for a G7 meeting in 2018, and blasted Trudeau for being “quite dishonest and weak” after he left.
Trump also forced the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, talks that consumed Trudeau’s government for years.
Tuesday’s session began with a 45-minute meeting between Biden, Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and their Canadian counterparts.
Another meeting with more officials followed. Trudeau was accompanied by his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, and others.
The official said the White House had expected Trudeau to raise the issue of the two Canadians detained by Beijing and charged with espionage after Canada’s detention of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, on a U.S. arrest warrant.
Meng remains under house arrest.
Biden also said the leaders would work closely to strengthen supply-chain security and resilience, and to drive a robust post-pandemic “financial recovery that rewards every person, not just these at the prime.”
()