President, PM have informal meeting on trade

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to steer clear of Donald Trump’s blast radius Wednesday as the two leaders converged for the first day of the NATO leaders’ summit, opting to meet informally to discuss North American trade irritants instead of the burning issue of defence spending.

But for anyone hoping to see sparks fly at NATO headquarters in Brussels, the U.S. president did not disappoint, complaining anew about defence spending even as he endorsed a joint communique supporting current commitments, and pointedly slamming a German natural gas pipeline deal he says has left the country “totally controlled” and “captive to Russia.”

Trudeau did not have an offi- cial bilateral meeting with Trump on Wednesday, but did have a conversation with the U.S. president “on the margins” of the NATO summit, said a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office.

The conversation focused on trade, including efforts to revamp the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and the ramifications for those talks of Mexico’s presidential election, from which left-leaning populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador emerged victorious.

The conversation was “positive,” one official said. But Tru- deau appeared to be far from Trump’s orbit during the traditional gathering of leaders for the NATO family photo op and ceremony, standing quietly to the side as Trump chatted with Britain’s Theresa May, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.

Trump held several official bilateral meetings, some 2,000 journalists following his every move, while Trudeau held only one: a talk with the prime minister of Sweden, Stefan Lofven, whose country is a partner nation to NATO.

The only time the Canadian prime minister pulled focus was during an early questionand-answer session with NATO delegates, where he announced Canada’s command of a new NATO mission in Iraq.