Biden, Trudeau pledge to counter China, climate change, in their first bilateral meeting
- In Reports
- 02:56 PM, Feb 24, 2021
- Myind Staff
US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought on Tuesday to flip the web page on the Trump period, stressing the nations’ deep ties and pledging to work collectively to counteract Chinese affect and handle climate change.
“The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada,” Biden instructed Trudeau by way of a digital video hyperlink with the Canadian chief and high aides. “That’s why you were my first call as president (and) my first bilateral meeting,” he mentioned.
The United States and Canada will work together to “better compete” with China and counter threats to the two countries’ “interests and values”, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, following a virtual meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Biden White House’s first bilateral meeting with a foreign leader, Tuesday’s conference took place amid efforts by the new administration to rally a multilateral pressure campaign against Beijing, and an ongoing dispute between Ottawa and Beijing over the fate of two detained Canadians arrested in China more than two years ago.
“It was an opportunity for Prime Minister Trudeau and I to explore our bilateral partnership to reinforce and help drive issues of concern in our hemisphere and globally,” Biden said of the meeting. “That includes coordinating our approaches to better compete with China and to counter threats to our interests and values.”
Trudeau additionally thanked Biden for reiterating US help for the discharge 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 didn’t take questions after delivering their remarks.
Trudeau welcomed the Biden administration, citing in specific Washington’s renewed consideration to climate change in distinction to former US President Donald Trump.
“Thank you, again, for stepping up in such a big way on tackling climate change. US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,” the prime minister mentioned.
Canada has typically been a US president’s first international stopover. However, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the sit-down between the two leaders and a few of their high deputies right into a digital affair.
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 US 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 aluminium and steel. He travelled only once to Canada for a G7 meeting in 2018, and blasted Trudeau for being “very 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 US 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 restoration that advantages everybody, not simply these on the high.”
(Inputs from Reuters)
Image Source: Reuters
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