Bush to push North American agenda
The two-day North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec appears to lack a signature issue.
By Agencies |
WASHINGTON: President George W Bush joins Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon tomorrow in hopes of expanding cooperation among their countries, which enjoy the largest trading partnership in the world.
The two-day North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec appears to lack a signature issue, except perhaps a new US push to halt Mexico's bloody drug wars.
Instead, the broad theme is economic prosperity, built around several topics: border security, competitiveness with India and China, product safety and energy solutions.
Underlying those points are technical but important matters, such as aligning border-crossing procedures and commercial standards.
"It's not necessarily sexy stuff, but it's essential to our security. It has to be done," said Roger Noriega, Bush's former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. "And it just so happens that Mexico and Canada have renewed themselves with the election of two right-of-center leaders who see the world a lot like Bush does."
The setting will a massive red-cedar chateau on the banks of the Ottawa River. Some nettlesome issues await the leaders.
Bush promised to deliver an overhaul of US-Mexico immigration policy, and now he will be seeing Calderon for the first time since that effort collapsed in Congress.
Calderon has made clear he is after more from the United States than hundreds of kilometers of fencing to keep the countries divided.
The two-day North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec appears to lack a signature issue, except perhaps a new US push to halt Mexico's bloody drug wars.
Instead, the broad theme is economic prosperity, built around several topics: border security, competitiveness with India and China, product safety and energy solutions.
Underlying those points are technical but important matters, such as aligning border-crossing procedures and commercial standards.
"It's not necessarily sexy stuff, but it's essential to our security. It has to be done," said Roger Noriega, Bush's former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. "And it just so happens that Mexico and Canada have renewed themselves with the election of two right-of-center leaders who see the world a lot like Bush does."
The setting will a massive red-cedar chateau on the banks of the Ottawa River. Some nettlesome issues await the leaders.
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Bush promised to deliver an overhaul of US-Mexico immigration policy, and now he will be seeing Calderon for the first time since that effort collapsed in Congress.
Calderon has made clear he is after more from the United States than hundreds of kilometers of fencing to keep the countries divided.
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