WASHINGTON – President Biden spoke on video conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Tuesday, trying in his first virtual meeting with a foreign leader to restore a sense of normalcy in a central relationship brusquely overthrown by former President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump often classifies his North American neighbor, a close ally and main trading partner as an economic predator, and insulted Mr. Trudeau as “two-sided”, “weak” and “dishonest”. Tuesday’s tone could hardly have been more different.
“The United States has no closer friend than Canada,” Biden told Trudeau shortly before the meeting. “We are all better served when the United States and Canada work together and lead together.”
“He has missed the leadership of the United States very much in recent years,” replied Trudeau.
For the sake of diplomacy, the meeting was a somewhat forced subject and a reminder of the persistence of the coronavirus. Normally, Biden would have hosted Trudeau in the Oval Office, where cameras would have captured them sitting side by side in a classic Washington painting.
Instead, Biden sat at the head of a long wooden table in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and interacted with two-dimensional Trudeau, who appeared on a television monitor about 20 feet away. He was accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
Even through a distant screen, however, Trudeau was visibly relieved to be in the virtual presence of a new American president after the destruction that Trump caused in one of the world’s most placid international relations.
In addition to underestimating Trudeau, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum imports. “Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,” said Trump when he renewed the tariff in August.
“It’s so good to see you, Joe,” Trudeau said on Tuesday, adding that he was “very excited” to be working with the United States again on climate change, one of the Canadian leader’s and Mr. Biden’s top priorities.
Despite a large generational gap – Biden is almost 30 years older than Trudeau, 49 – the two leaders are natural partners with similar political agendas. Trudeau was the first foreign leader to call Biden in November to congratulate him on his election victory, and the first to whom Biden called after his oath last month.
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After the meeting, Biden and Trudeau made statements in the East Room of the White House, where, by tradition, they would have held a short press conference, answering two questions each. In this case, Mr. Biden spoke of a pulpit next to another video screen showing Mr. Trudeau, and the men did not answer questions.
In their statements, Biden and Trudeau said they would cooperate not only with climate change, but also with the coronavirus, as well as with restoring their respective economies and fighting racial discrimination.
Biden also said that closer cooperation would allow the United States and Canada to compete more effectively with China. And he asked Beijing to release two Canadians detained in China for more than two years, in what was widely considered retribution for the 2018 Canadian detention of a top Chinese technology executive at the request of American prosecutors. “Human beings are not exchanging tokens,” he said.
In his comments before the meeting, Mr. Biden also said that he saw Mr. Trudeau as an ally in his effort to resurrect the strength and image of democracy around the world.
“As leaders of the main democracies, we have a responsibility to prove that democracy can still deliver results for our people,” said Biden, in an implicit reference to countries like Russia and China. “There are many leaders around the world who are trying to make the autocracy argument work better.”
But the relationship between the United States and Canada is not without its problems. On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order canceling the construction license for a Calgary company for the Keystone XL pipeline, a victory for environmental activists that, according to Trudeau, left him “disappointed”. American dairy producers are also opposed to Canadian price and supply controls that they say have benefited their peers and put them at a disadvantage.
Canada also imposes tariffs on U.S. dairy imports, a practice that Trump called “a disgrace.”
But on Tuesday, that belligerence seemed well in the past. Amid the conversation about hard work ahead, there was a tone of courtesy and even levity. After Trudeau switched to French at one point, Biden commented self-deprecatingly about his own language skills.
“I told you, Mr. Prime Minister, I studied French for five years at school and college,” he said, adding that “every time I tried to say that, I made a fool of myself, I stopped trying. “
“At least when I try Spanish and make a fool of myself, they laugh with me,” said Biden.
In his closing remarks, Biden – a famous tactile, relationship-oriented politician – seemed to recognize the sterility and strangeness of an important screen-led meeting.
“I’m looking forward to when we can meet in person,” he said. A few moments later, Mr. Biden said goodbye to his French-speaking counterpart with a passable, if not very fluent, “au revoir”.