Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden are set to hold a bilateral meeting just before the start of a meeting of North American leaders in Mexico City next week.
The prime minister’s office confirmed to CBC News on Friday that the two are set to meet Jan. 10. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. told CBC News on Friday she expects the two leaders to discuss what they’d like to see from the official North American meetings.
Kirsten Hillman said the two are also likely to go over a long list of bilateral issues, including supply chain concerns and economic co-operation, as well as foreign policy issues like the war in Ukraine, Canada’s recently released Indo-Pacific strategy and the Arctic.
“The prime minister is very focused on our joint economy and strengthening supply chains. We’ve had a record growth in intra-North American trade this past year, and so he’s going to want to make sure that the discussion centres around how to not only recognize that but continue that trend,” Hillman said in an interview with CBC Radio’s The House that is airing Saturday.
Trudeau is also expected to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador next Wednesday.
North American leaders are set to meet in the Mexican capital next week for discussions covering issues like climate change and supply chain disruptions. It will be the three leaders’ first in-person meeting since 2021 and will feature a mix of formal talks and more casual gatherings, according to the Mexican government.
Canadian officials say they expect a variety of economic and global issues to come up in the one-on-one meeting with Biden, and that Ukraine will be high on the list of topics for discussion.
The meeting comes in a moment of relative calm in Canada-U.S. affairs. Several major bilateral irritants were recently resolved, are being resolved or are being put off.
A dispute over electric vehicles has been settled, a spat over a trusted-travel program may be easing and longer-term tensions over the Line 5 oil pipeline are before the courts.
Hillman pushed back Friday against suggestions that the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which includes major investments in green energy, could suck investment away from similar projects in Canada.
“I have heard that line of analysis as well and I don’t agree. I think that investing in green technology development and green technology application in the United States or anywhere is important and it’s essential,” Hillman said, noting that some American funds are open to Canadian enterprises as well.
Instead of a focus on the Canada-U.S. relationship, the summit likely will be dominated by serious security issues between the U.S. and Mexico.
They include violence and corruption linked to drug cartels and a reported breakdown in U.S.-Mexico cooperation on the issue.
An influx of migrants into the U.S. will also be highlighted this weekend when Biden makes his first trip to the Mexican border as president.
The president this week announced a series of new migration-control measures in the face of domestic criticism of his actions to date.
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