WASHINGTON — Antony Blinken will meet virtually Friday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau in a day of online diplomacy for the U.S. secretary of state. Blinken will meet with Trudeau, Garneau and other members of the federal cabinet as part of a “virtual trip” to Canada and Mexico, Blinken’s first bilateral video conferences since taking office.
The visit follows up on Trudeau’s own virtual summit this week with U.S. President Joe Biden, which produced a “road map” for plans to collaborate on issues like climate change, the economy and COVID-19.
The pandemic made an in-person visit impossible, said Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
“We decided to do this virtually instead of waiting for the time when it would be safer to travel,” Chung said. “This is the new world we live in through virtual platforms, but we thought it was really important to engage with both Canada and Mexico early on.”
Agenda items for the two “neighbours, friends and allies” also include “defending human rights in the Western Hemisphere and around the world, and bolstering our shared defence and security,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
That means the conversations will likely include the plight of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, two Canadians who have spent the last two years in custody in China.
Spavor and Kovrig — the “two Michaels,” as they are known in Canada — were swept up in the weeks that followed Canada’s arrest in December 2018 of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei and daughter of the company’s founder.
Source: ctvnews.ca
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
