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Obama to attend North American Leaders' Summit in Canada

Xinhua, May 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S President Barak Obama will attend the North American Leaders' Summit held in Canada in late June, U.S. Ambassador Bruce Heyman to Canada said here Wednesday.

President Obama will travel to Ottawa on June 29 for the North American Leaders' Summit, where he will meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, said Heyman in a statement.

The summit is a trilateral annual meeting between Canada's prime minister and the presidents of Mexico and the United States.

The meeting highlights the importance of continuing to strengthen the bilateral and trilateral ties between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the U.S. ambassador said.

Trudeau also announced Wednesday that he will meet with Obama and Pena Nieto in Ottawa on June 29 for the summit.

"I look forward to meeting with President Obama and President Pena Nieto to make real progress on the challenges we collectively face - whether how we can expand trade between our nations, build competitive clean growth economies, or create real help for middle-class families," said Trudeau in his announcement.

Trudeau's announcement and Heyman's statement came almost the same time after months of reported intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations between Canada and its North American partners.

The Ottawa summit will be the first to be held in Canada in nearly a decade. The last summit was hosted by President Pena Nieto in 2014 in Toluca, Mexico.

Canada was supposed to host the meeting last year, but then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper cancelled it after Obama refused to approve the Keystone XL pipeline between the two countries.

While Trudeau promised during the election to hold it in Canada, local media reports said Obama wanted it in the United States to mark his final year in office.

Meanwhile, Pena Nieto was reluctant to come to Canada as long as Mexicans need visas to visit. The Harper government imposed the visa requirements in 2009 to stop immigrants from coming to Canada. But Mexicans saw it as a slap in the face, and Pena Nieto cancelled a visit to Calgary, Canada, over the issue last year. Endit