Road Map For Renewed US-Canada Partnership Announced
U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau jointly unveiled a new U.S.-Canada Partnership Road map.
A White House communique explained that the Road map is a blueprint for relationship between the two neighboring governments, and commitment to work in partnership on areas of mutual concern, such as the recovery from COVID-19 and global health security, efforts to combat climate change and shared priorities in defense and security.
Biden’s meeting with Trudeau, which marked his first bilateral meeting with a foreign leader since assuming office, was virtual through video conference in the wake of COVID-19.
The two leaders asserted that their top priority is to end the pandemic.
They committed to work together to help prevent future biological threats by strengthening the World Health Organization, and cooperate on the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons [and Materials] of Mass Destruction.
They also agreed to work in close cooperation to strengthen the supply chain security and resilience, and to ensure that Canada and the United States are driving a robust economic recovery.
The United States and Canada announced joint initiatives to accelerate economic recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on supporting women-owned and minority/Indigenous-owned SMEs, by leveraging the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) SME chapter and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) model.
Biden affirmed the goal for the United States to achieve a net-zero carbon pollution free power sector by 2035 while Trudeau reaffirmed the goal for Canada to achieve 90 percent non-emitting electricity by 2030.
Biden said that now that the United States is back in the Paris Climate Agreement, “we intend to demonstrate our leadership in order to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions”.
Canada and the United States are launching a high-level Climate Ambition Ministerial to align the two countries’ policies and goals, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
With the aim to root out racism and discrimination in both the countries’ systems, both sides agreed to re-establish the Cross-Border Crime Forum.
Biden and Trudeau, who are leaders of key NATO member nations, discussed their work with European allies to bolster transatlantic security.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command will be modernized, and an expanded U.S-Canadian Arctic dialogue to cover issues related to continental security, economic and social development, and Arctic governance will be launched.
Biden vowed to work together with Trudeau for the safe return of two Canadians detained in China. “Human beings are not bartering chips,” Biden said.
“In the face of COVID-19, of climate change, of rising inequality, this is our moment to act, said Trudeau.
The meeting is seen as an effort by Biden to set the records straight after former President Donald Trump’s rocky relationship with his Liberal neighbor.
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