WH unfazed by delay of ‘Three Amigo’s’ summit

The White House is “not particularly worried” that the delay in deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline may have led Ottawa to postpone next month’s “Three Amigos” summit involving the leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was expected to host President Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in late February, but those plans were postponed. Canadian media reports suggested the delay could be due to frustrations with the U.S. over the Keystone pipeline.

The White House has said the president would veto House legislation, passed earlier this week, that would greenlight the project. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation later this month, although it does not appear supporters have the votes to overwhelm a veto.

The administration looked to downplay the possibility that Keystone was straining the relationship with America’s northern neighbor while declining to say why the meeting was postponed.

“I know that the relationship that we have with Canada is far deeper and far broader than this one infrastructure project, that when it comes to the deep economic ties between our two countries and the deep national security ties between our two countries, there certainly is a lot to discuss in the context of that meeting, and I’m not particularly worried about any sort of Keystone outcome looming over those meetings at all,” Earnest said.

The White House spokesman said he expected the meeting to be rescheduled for later in the year when, he joked, the weather would be better in Canada.

“As long as this meeting gets rescheduled in a timely fashion and we can continue to have the kind of strong relationship that we have with our neighbors to the north, then there’s no concern here at the White House about it,” he said.