Trudeau arrives at the Summit of the Americas

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will join leaders from the Western Hemisphere in Los Angeles for the latest edition of the Summit of the Americas.

Trudeau arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday evening. He will start the day off with Barbados counterpart Mia Mottley to talk about environmental priorities.

Trudeau will then attend a roundtable meeting with Latin American and Caribbean leaders to discuss climate change, defending democratic values and promoting gender equality.

He’ll also talk with Shilpan Amin, the president of General Motors International, about electric vehicles, the hemisphere’s climate goals and the effort to energize economic growth.

Biden and Trudeau will cross paths later in the day at the official opening ceremony.

Before arriving in Los Angeles, Trudeau visited the Rocky Mountains for meetings with military officials in Colorado.

He and Defence Minister Anita Anand toured the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the fortified command centre that houses part of Norad, the joint-command continental defence system.

Both countries agree Norad, the only binational defence system of its kind in the world, is badly in need of upgrades if it is to counter the modern-day threats like Russia and China.

Neither Trudeau nor Anand are offering any clues as to what sort of timeline may be involved.

Anand would only say “a number of initiatives” are on the table and that a modernization plan would be forthcoming “shortly” — a message she’s been delivering for months.

He then moves on to a roundtable meeting with Latin American and Caribbean leaders to discuss climate change, defend democratic values and promote gender equality.