United States President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will travel to Mexico City in January for the North American Leaders Summit (NALS), President López Obrador said Friday.
The meeting, colloquially called the “Three Amigos Summit,” had been scheduled to take place in December, but has been pushed back to early 2023, according to AMLO.
Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador indicated that he would hold bilateral meetings with Biden and Trudeau before a two-day NALS commences on January 9.
“Both are coming, but it’s being suggested that there be a bilateral meeting first … with the United States, who are the ones asking for this meeting and then … another bilateral [meeting] with Canada. And then the summit, here, the host will be Mexico City,” he said.
The most recent NALS, the ninth, was held in Washington, D.C., in November 2019. The announcement of the dates for the 10th summit comes as the three countries engage in dispute settlement consultations over Mexico’s nationalistic energy policies.
Both the U.S. and Canada requested consultations under the USMCA free trade pact, arguing that companies from those countries that operate in Mexico are not being treated fairly.
López Obrador didn’t offer any indication as to what will be on the agenda at the upcoming summit, but predicted that Biden will fly into the new army-built airport north of the capital rather than the main Mexico City airport.
“As the president’s plane is very big, it will land at the Felipe Ángeles airport. The Mexico City airport also has the capacity, but heads of state, presidents, are now choosing to arrive at Felipe Ángeles,” he said.
The new commercial airport was built on an Air Force base some 50 kilometers north of central Mexico City after López Obrador canceled the previous government’s airport project following a legally questionable vote held before he took office.
Mexico News Daily
