The United States and Canada will work together on numerous mutual concerns such as countering the Chinese influence and modernising the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said US President Joe Biden on Tuesday (local time).
"Coming on the heels of the G7 meeting last Friday it was an opportunity for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and mine to explore our bilateral partnership, to reinforce and help drive issues of concern in our hemisphere and globally, that includes coordinating our approaches to better compete with China and to counter threats to our interests and values," Biden said during a press conference held after the conclusion of the bilateral meeting.
He also called on China to release two jailed Canadians -- Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig -- who have been detained in the Asian country for over two years, New York Post reported. Former diplomat Kovrig and businessman Spavor were detained soon after Canadian authorities arrested Huawei Technologies Co executive Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request by the US in December 2018.
"Human beings are not bartering chips. And we're going to work together until we get their safe return," Biden said.
Speaking on NORAD, the US President said, "We... agreed to modernize [NORAD]...We will launch an expanded US-Canadian dialogue to cover issues related to continental security, economic and social development and Arctic governance."
At the virtual meet, he said, "We're launching a high-level climate ambition ministerial and to align our policies and our goals and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050."
Biden said he and Trudeau "agreed to work together on an inclusive recovery" from the COVID-19 pandemic by "using the tools available through the small and medium enterprise chapter of our trade agreement to support women and minority-owned businesses."
Meanwhile, Biden and Trudeau said they would like to work together on global warming.
"We also double-downed on our efforts to tackle climate change, It was really, really encouraging. Now that the United States is back in the Paris Agreement, we intend to demonstrate our leadership in order to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions," Biden said.
"Canada and the United States are going to work in lockstep to display the seriousness of our commitment at both home and abroad. To that end, we're launching a high-level climate ambition ministerial to align our policies and our goals and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050," New York Post reported Biden's goal which he previously stated in his presidential campaign.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Canadian prime minister told Biden, "thank you again for stepping up in such a big way on tackling climate change. US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years."
( With inputs from ANI )
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