Share
Copied
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Canada, March 23, 2023. /AP
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived Thursday in Canada where he will meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address parliament, with reports that a deal has been struck on managing undocumented migration across the neighbors' long border.
Trade, Canada's anemic defense spending, and a potential international force to stabilize troubled Haiti are expected to be on the agenda in the events set largely for Friday.
As Biden flew north, there were reports that another hot button issue in the otherwise smooth relationship had been resolved through a deal to clamp down on undocumented migration by asylum seekers passing through the United States into Canada.
According to The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, Canada will be able to stop illegal migrants at the Roxham Road crossing point on the frontier between New York state and Quebec.
The reports said that Canada has agreed in return to take in some 15,000 asylum seekers from Latin America through legal channels, a move that will ease the pressure on the southern U.S. border.
Ahead of the visit, the two sides stressed their close integration.
Another expected item on the agenda is the financing of the neighbors' mutual defense pacts, both as members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and their joint air defense system for North America, named NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command).
The U.S. government has been pressuring Canada to increase its defense spending, which in 2022 was just 1.33 percent of GDP. This is scheduled to rise to 1.59 percent from 2026 but that's still well below the NATO alliance requirement of minimum 2 percent of GDP spending.
Search Trends
SITEMAP
Copyright © 2023 CGTN. 京ICP备16065310号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466
SITEMAP
Copyright © 2023 CGTN. 京ICP备16065310号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466