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Trudeau’s office said in a statement that “during the phone call that lasted about thirty minutes, the new US president and the prime minister of Canada agreed” to meet next month to advance the important work of renewing the deep and enduring friendship between Canada. and the United States.
The date of this meeting has not been decided, nor has it been decided if it will be in person or if it will be hypothetical ”.
For its part, the White House limited itself to indicating in a statement that “the two leaders agreed to speak again within a month, to continue strengthening their bilateral cooperation.”
This call, the first telephone conversation between Biden and a foreign leader, “reflects the strategic importance of the relationship between the United States and Canada,” according to the White House.
The telephone conversation between the two men was “very friendly”, as confirmed by Trudeau’s office to the “Agence France Presse”.
The two men touched, according to the Ottawa statement, a set of files, including the fight against the Corona pandemic, which has caused the closure of the borders between the two countries since last March, and the “exceptional and very narrow economic relationship “. “between the two neighboring countries, as well as the need to protect the environment.
Trudeau and Biden discussed the main dispute between the two countries, which is the decision by the new US president to cancel a major pipeline project for Canada.
Trudeau’s office said: “The (Canadian) Prime Minister expressed Canada’s disappointment with the US decision on the Keystone XL project,” adding: “The Prime Minister highlighted the significant benefits provided by the bilateral energy relationship in terms of economy and energy security “.
Earlier Friday, Trudeau affirmed his aspiration to renew bilateral relations with the United States and strengthen cooperation in the fight against climate change.
“It is clear that (Biden’s) decision on Keystone XL is very difficult for workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, who have experienced several tremors in recent years,” he told a news conference.
“I will express my concern about jobs and sources of income in Canada, especially in the West, directly during my conversation with President Biden,” he added.
White House spokeswoman Gene Sacchi said Biden would call Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday after speaking with Trudeau.
The three countries are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which brings together nearly 500 million consumers in a single market that represents around 27 percent of the product world gross domestic product, in a region where trade reached $ 1.2 trillion in 2019, before the Corona epidemic
Trudeau indicated that the new US administration represents an opportunity to turn the page on the difficult relationship that united the two countries during the era of former President Donald Trump, who once described Trudeau as “insincere” and “submissive.”
“We really are beginning a new era of friendship,” Trudeau said.
Biden canceled, upon taking office Wednesday, a license for the Keystone XL pipeline through an executive order, preventing completion of the project, which began a decade ago.
The 1947 km pipeline was supposed to transport, beginning in 2023, up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the Alberta fields to Nebraska and then through an existing network primarily to the Texas coastal refineries.
