Washington: Vice President Kamala Harris held her second call with a foreign leader — speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday after a talk earlier this month with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last month.
The calls boost the vice president’s role in diplomacy. Former Vice President Mike Pence occasionally spoke directly by phone with foreign leaders, but that role generally was performed by President Donald Trump, especially last year.
A review of press notices from Pence’s final year in office reveals no readouts of direct calls with the leaders of foreign nations.
Harris expressed to Macron “her commitment to strengthening bilateral ties between the United States and France and to revitalizing the transatlantic alliance,” according to a readout from her office.
Harris and Macron “agreed on the need for close bilateral and multilateral cooperation to address COVID-19, climate change, and support democracy at home and around the world,” according to the readout.
In the call with the Canadian PM, Harris recalled fondly her years as a high school student in Montreal, and the two also discussed trade policies between the nations and “avoiding the unintended consequences of Buy America policies.” Readouts from neither side mentioned the disagreement between the two nations on the Keystone XL pipeline spiked by President Biden.
