The leaders spoke publicly before and after the confabulation – Biden speaking from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Trudeau from his office on Parliament Hill. Access to media in Ottawa and Washington was limited and they did not answer questions.
The first bilateral bilateral meeting at the White House yielded a roadmap for collaboration with a strong focus on the environment.
There may have been no handshakes, but the tone was warm. “The United States has no closer, or closer, friend than Canada,” said Biden.
Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland smiled under their masks.
Trudeau referred to Biden by his first name from the beginning, a habit he has had since the Obama administration. Late in the afternoon, Biden responded in kind.
There was no direct mention of former President Donald Trump, although Trudeau praised Biden for reaffirming U.S. leadership in global climate policy. “While we are preparing the joint launch and its release, it is good when the Americans are not removing all references to climate change and adding them instead,” he said, nodding at the Trump administration’s attempts to water down statements by international allies on the subject during his presidency.
At the start of the two-hour meeting, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke warmly about going to college in Montreal. Freeland added that he had read Harris’ autobiography and agreed that French was a difficult language to learn. Biden joked about his French skills, despite studying the language for five years as a youth.
Despite all the subtleties, the meeting did not resolve the deep-seated issues among nations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned reporters in advance that the United States would not announce a plan to share Covid-19 vaccines with its northern neighbor, or exempt it from the Biden Buy American executive order, whose application the White House is “still evaluating. ”Government officials promised that nothing would change Biden’s position on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Still, leaders made a point of publicly focusing on common priorities and issues of particular importance to each other.
In the joint “roadmap” for renewing Canada-US cooperation released after the meeting, Biden and Trudeau pledged to update their 2030 carbon targets under the Paris Agreement when the United States hosts its April climate summit. They agreed to rely on scientific and public health recommendations when considering any future easing of Canada-US border restrictions, and pledged to work with multinational institutions to support the global distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Biden reaffirmed Washington’s support for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians that China has detained for more than two years in apparent retaliation for the Canadian arrest of a Huawei executive at the request of the United States. Trudeau acknowledged the terrible winter storm in Texas, noting that Saskatchewan’s SaskPower dealership exported energy to the state.
They ended the day virtually side by side, with a leader visible on a monitor near the pulpit the other was talking about.
“We are facing difficult times, there is no doubt,” said Trudeau. “But we are not going to face them alone.”