LOS ANGELIS –
This is a route worthy of Hollywood: the governor of California, the man who runs Google and the president of the United States.
Day 2 of the America’s Summit is set to be busy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
After meeting with President Joe Biden and holding a press conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trudeau will attend the first plenary meeting at the leadership level.
He also met with the President of Argentina before sitting with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.
On Wednesday, Trudeau spent the day talking to Latin American and Caribbean leaders to help their countries achieve their sustainable development goals.
Goldie Haider, president and CEO of the Canadian Business Council, says today may be the day to put Canada’s own needs on the table.
“The world is changing … and new alliances are being formed in response,” said Haider, who wants Ottawa to become more assertive with the United States on bilateral issues.
Supply chains are changing in real time thanks to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and governments are realizing that the private sector has a key role to play, he added.
Canada needs to ask itself, “How are we going to partner? How are we going to deal with climate change? What are we going to do with the integrity of the supply chain?” Haider said.
“These are things we can work on together, the public and private sectors … we need to learn and do more than that if we want to help Canada navigate its path through an extremely complex world.”
On Wednesday, Trudeau spent the day focusing on the ever-present challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean – challenges facing the United States and Canada in the form of economic constraints and migratory pressures.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Motley described a “triple crisis” in his country: the lasting economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising fuel and food costs exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and the most severe climate impacts in Ukraine. small island nations like her.
Motley suggested it was time for the rest of the world to take these concerns more seriously.
“We don’t expect things to change right away,” Motley said.
“But what we expect is justice, what we expect is transparency, what we expect is that just as we want to see people here, we want people to see, feel and hear us.”
Motley and Trudeau later took part in a roundtable discussion with leaders from Chile, Belize, Ecuador and Jamaica, where they heard complaints about financial institutions that could do more to support growth in the developing world.
It is vital that democracy flourishes in small and developing nations and that their citizens share the rewards and realize the benefits.
“We need – as unanimous countries, but frankly, as a world – we need democracies to succeed,” Trudeau said.
“In order for democracies to succeed at a time when they are withdrawing, when they are under pressure from all over the world, we need our citizens to feel this success.”
Promoting economic success and social stability at home is a key part of a strategy to prevent another problem facing the hemisphere: the constant migration of potential refugees making their way to the Mexican-US border.
“No one leaves their home because they want to, they leave because there are no opportunities – because they face poverty and insolvency,” said Foreign Secretary Melanie Jolie after the first of two planned meetings with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“We need to look at empowerment in our hemisphere. We need to give people confidence that they can live in their own country, have access to services, a good education for their children and good health.”
Canada’s goal, she added, was “to make sure that some of these countries’ concerns will be addressed by our American friends.”
Biden used the opening ceremony to unveil a new hemisphere “partnership” aimed at boosting economic growth in the region, which the White House says accounts for 31.9 percent of world GDP.
The new initiative appears to be a continental cousin of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Biden’s new partnership with regional powers such as Japan, India and South Korea to counter China’s growing influence.
It is also an excuse for Canada to start a serious partnership with the United States, said Haider, who criticized the government for abandoning it from the Asia-Pacific network.
“This is an opportunity for us not just to look, but to be a reliable partner that the United States can count on to help achieve our collective interests,” he said.
“You are asserting yourself in these things because it is in our national interest … it is better to be in the room than to look outside.”
Canada is using the summit to push for “urgent action” to tackle climate change, another key factor in boosting migration, and is seeking funding initiatives to help countries in the region.
Promoting gender equality and fostering the economic and democratic growth that comes with it is another pillar of the Canadian summit’s strategy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 9, 2022.
Add Comment