The White House says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will speak with newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.
Press secretary Jen Psaki says Trudeau will be the first foreign leader to speak with Biden since his inauguration.
The two have a lot to talk about: hours after his inauguration, Biden signed an executive order effectively cancelling the US$8-billion Keystone XL pipeline expansion.
In a statement, Trudeau says he’s disappointed in the decision, but appreciates Biden’s commitment to climate change — a sign Ottawa isn’t going to push hard on trying to reverse the decision.
He says workers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and across Canada will always have the federal government’s support.
Trudeau cheered some of Biden’s other Day 1 decisions, including rejoining the Paris climate accord, blocking oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and renewing ties with the World Health Organization.
In an interview with Global News on Wednesday, Canada’s foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau, said he is “very optimistic about the relationship” between the United States and Canada.
Garneau named several areas on which Canada and the U.S. can cooperate including trade, security, climate change and combatting racism.
“I think there’s an enormous amount of commonality that we have between our two countries,” he said. “It’s our most important relationship.”
He said the relationship between the two countries has been “strong” from the beginning.
“And we will continue to develop that relationship,” he said. “I’m very optimistic we will strengthen it.”
-With files from Global News’ Hannah Jackson