Trudeau wants to ‘broaden the conversation’ with Trump: US and Canadian officials say relationship has improved

They don’t always see eye-to-eye – that much is obvious.

But a year after President Donald Trump abruptly departed a summit meeting in Canada – leaving angry tweets about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his jet-stream – he’ll meet again with the liberal leader at the White House on Thursday.

Both a US and a Canadian official said the two men’s relationship has rebounded since Trump called Trudeau “very dishonest and weak” almost exactly a year ago.

Now, the two men are both working to secure passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement replacement package, called the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, their governments negotiated along with Mexico. That puts them on the same side of an issue critical to Trump’s political prospects – something the US official noted would help warm the relationship between the two leaders.

High on the agenda Thursday: China, where two Canadian citizens have been detained for more than six months. After more than two years of almost exclusive focus on trade, Trudeau hopes to broaden the US-Canada conversation in his meeting with Trump.

Like Trump, Trudeau is facing a tough upcoming reelection. His challenge in Washington is balancing a relationship with a US President who is deeply unpopular in Canada while still maintaining friendly ties between the two countries.

Trudeau is eager to raise non-trade topics like military issues and taxation during his Oval Office sit-down with Trump, according to the Canadian official.

He also plans to raise the two Canadian citizens who were first detained in China in December on espionage charges. Their detainment came shortly after the arrest of a Chinese executive in Vancouver, a move which infuriated Beijing and sparked a diplomatic crisis.

Vice President Mike Pence addressed the issue publicly during a visit to Ottawa last month. And Canadian officials hope Trump will similarly speak to the issue on Thursday.

Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Japan, where they both – along with Trudeau – will be attending a leaders’ summit.

“For the last two years we’ve talked about NAFTA and haven’t talked about much of anything else,” the Canadian official said, calling the meeting this week “a broadening of the conversation.”

The two men both want to see the NAFTA replacement package ratified. Democrats in Congress have raised labor and environmental concerns, and Trudeau is set to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get a status update on the measure.

With Trump, Trudeau hopes to put aside obvious differences in style and outlook to find some common ground.

“There’s no denying there’s a lot of things we don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on,” the Canadian official said. “A lot of stuff ideologically we don’t align on either.”

“A lot of it is trying to find where we do align,” the official said.

After last year’s Group of 7 summit ended with Trump withdrawing his signature from the joint communique and angrily tweeting from Air Force One, Canadian officials were startled.

“It was like ‘what is going on here?’” the official said. “Things were resolved very quickly after that.”

Now, both the US and Canadian official said the two men have a friendly relationship. Trudeau has spoken to the President often by phone.