James McCarten, The Canadian Press
Posted Thursday, March 9, 2023 4:13 pm EST
Last updated Thursday, March 9, 2023 8:03 pm EST
WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden will travel to Ottawa on March 23 to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Canadian soil, his first visit north of the border since he was sworn in in 2021.
The president and his wife Jill Biden will spend two days in Canada, the White House confirmed Thursday, although a detailed itinerary has not yet been released.
The two leaders will discuss ongoing upgrades to the jointly led former continental defense system Norad, which came under intense scrutiny last month when a Chinese surveillance balloon hovered over US and Canadian airspace.
Fears, too, about unchecked Russian aggression and the two countries’ ability to defend the continent’s northern border have only accelerated in the year since the start of Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
“Keeping Americans safe from new and emerging threats requires a coordinated response,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
“During the visit, the Prime Minister and the President will highlight ongoing continental defense cooperation, including Norad’s key role in defending North America. They will also promote cooperation in the Arctic.”
The two leaders also plan to talk about how to strengthen shared supply chains, combat climate change and “accelerate the clean energy transition,” the White House said.
One of the highlights of the visit will be when Biden addresses a joint session of Parliament “to highlight the importance of the bilateral relationship between the United States and Canada,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
A visit to Canada is often one of the first trips abroad for a new US president, a tradition that was upended two years ago by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the rest of the world at the time, the two leaders settled for a virtual meeting.
The virus messed with Canada-US relations again in 2022, when Biden tested positive for COVID a second time, forcing the White House to scrap his plan for a summer visit.
Even if it is delayed, it will be an important bilateral meeting for both countries, said Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council.
“It’s an occasion that focuses the bureaucracy on the breadth and depth of bilateral and multilateral issues … and that’s a really good thing, because it gets everyone here focused on Canada,” Greenwood said.
“It also allows the president himself to think about and reflect on Canada in the context of all the other global relationships that the US has, and that can be a very good thing.”
Ultimately though, it is essential that the federal government in Ottawa make the most of the opportunity, he added.
“The extent to which Canada wants to lean on and try to help address some of the pain points that the US has is a good opportunity for Canada,” Greenwood said. “We won’t know until the visit happens if Canada wants to do that.”
As always, the two leaders have a lot to talk about, much of it a direct consequence of the pandemic, as both countries recalibrate their domestic and international supply chains, bilateral travel rules, and economic recovery efforts, all with with a view to halting the march of climate change around the world.
Strategies to minimize China’s reliance on critical minerals and semiconductors, two vital components in the global drive to expand the popularity of electric vehicles and fuel what some experts liken to a post-pandemic industrial revolution, are sure to be high on the agenda. .
So will a united front to oppose Russia’s offensive in the Ukraine, as well as what to do about Haiti, where Canada is facing international pressure to take a leading role in quelling widespread and rampant gang violence.
The PMO statement emphasized a familiar message from Trudeau about Haiti: that efforts to deal with the crisis must be “led by Haitians.”
There will be bilateral tensions to address as well.
The post-NAFTA era, where the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement is now the law of the land in continental trade, has been marked by irritants, including access to Canada’s dairy market and how the US. defines foreign content in cars.
Immigration has also become a hot topic: While Republican lawmakers often have a singular focus on the flow of immigrants across the US-Mexico border, an increase in the number of people has also caught their attention. entering from Canada.
Trudeau has publicly acknowledged that the two countries need to renegotiate the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement to stop the flow of irregular migration into Canada, but there is little interest in the US to do so.
Even so-called trusted travelers are having a harder time than before the pandemic, as the fast-track program known as Nexus was hampered by a cross-border jurisdictional dispute.
The White House said that “irregular migration and forced displacement throughout the region” would be on the agenda, but offered no further details. The PMO mentioned only “immigration.” None mentioned the treaty.
Biden’s speech to Parliament will follow in the footsteps of his former boss, then-President Barack Obama, who made a similar speech when he last visited Ottawa in June 2016.
Biden himself visited the nation’s capital in December of that year, as Obama’s second term was drawing to a close and the world was preparing for the inauguration of his Republican successor, Donald Trump.
“I know sometimes we are like the big brother who is a pain in the ass and overbearing … but we are more like family, even, than allies,” the vice president said at the time during a state dinner at his home. honor.
He applauded Canada’s role in defending and strengthening what he called a “liberal international order” amid the rise of authoritarianism around the world, perhaps sensing what the next four years hold for us.
“We’re going to get through this period because we’re American and Canadian, so if I had a glass, I’d toast, ‘Vive le Canada,’ because we need you very, very much.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 9, 2023.