Harper to meet Obama in critical one-on-one meeting
HONOLULU — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a key bilateral meeting Sunday afternoon following the APEC summit in Hawaii, at a critical juncture in the Canada-U.S. relationship.
It was uncertain whether Harper would score some coveted face time with Obama after the North American leaders’ summit — to be held this weekend in Honolulu with Mexican President Felipe Calderon — was cancelled due to the tragic death of a Mexican minister in a helicopter crash in that country.
The accident, while a huge blow to Mexico, threatened to scrap any private meeting time Harper might have had with Obama this weekend, as the prime minister looks to address a growing number of irritants in the cross-border relationship. The Obama administration’s decision on Thursday to delay a final ruling on the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline until after the November 2012 presidential election is just the latest in a series of prickly issues in the threadbare Canada-U.S. relationship.
The U.S. president held bilateral talks with a number of global leaders on the sidelines of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, which wraps up Sunday.
Obama is slated to hold tete-a-tetes with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Harper originally didn’t have a separate bilateral meeting planned with Obama before the so-called Three Amigos summit was cancelled.
Harper will need a deft diplomatic touch to address a growing number of cross-border issues that are sparking more questions about the strength of Canada-U.S. ties. The U.S. government’s decision to examine rerouting the Keystone XL pipeline — which would carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from northern Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas — could postpone a final ruling for 12 to 18 months, and potentially longer if a new environmental assessment is needed.
“Perhaps the Harper government has failed to convince the Americans to go in the direction they wanted,” said Christopher Sands, a specialist in Canada-U.S. relations at the Hudson Institute, a think-tank in Washington D.C. “There’s something in the air here where the Obama administration, as it heads into re-election, is in a couple of its significant gestures sending a signal that the way that Washington views things hasn’t changed,” he added.
“And that ought to be frustrating to the Harper government, I would think, because they put a lot of effort into not only telling the Canadians things had changed, but building these bilateral things.”
Environmentalists were looking for an issue to grasp on to, he said, and the pipeline seems to offer something for several green groups because there are concerns about land, air, water and climate change.
The Conservative government’s main objectives for the APEC summit include: promoting Canada’s international trade agenda and advancing regional economic integration; championing Canadian commercial interests in the region and showcasing the country to world leaders and senior executives from APEC economies; and advancing Canadian foreign policy goals such as emergency preparedness and open governance.