President Biden will host the heads of government of Canada and Mexico at the White House next week, marking the first summit of North American leaders in five years.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will convene with Biden on Nov. 18 to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, economic competitiveness and growth, climate change and migration, the White House announced Wednesday.
“Strengthening our partnership is essential to our ability to build back better, to revitalize our leadership, and to respond to a widening range of regional and global challenges,” the White House said in a statement. “With respect for each other’s sovereignty and in a true spirit of partnership, we affirm our unwavering vision that North America is the most competitive and dynamic region in the world.”
The meeting will take place roughly a week after the Biden administration reopened the U.S. borders for international travelers who are fully vaccinated, a major step for many who had family in Canada and Mexico but were unable to see them. People traveling from Mexico or Canada do not need to show a negative test.
Restrictions on international travelers had been renewed monthly since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, even as other countries have opened up their borders to fully vaccinated Americans.
The last summit of North American leaders took place in 2016, when Trudeau, then-President Obama and then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto gathered in Ottawa. No such summit took place during the Trump administration, which featured strife between the U.S. and its neighbors over trade and immigration.