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(CNN) -
When US President Joe Biden welcomes the Prime Minister of Canada to the White House on Tuesday to "revitalize" a strained cross-border relationship under his predecessor, he will do so by addressing a large monitor. of TV.
In-person visits by foreign leaders are still banned as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
So Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will move to the West Wing of the White House from Ottawa and his bearded face will stand alongside Biden on a big screen as they each do their best to replicate the traditional choreography of a bilateral meeting at the White House.
There will be no handshake.
But there will be opening remarks and a photo shoot of the men sitting next to each other.
The meeting between the two leaders will then expand to a session with cabinet members, including the secretaries of State, Defense, Homeland Security and Transportation, who will speak to their counterparts via videoconference.
And to conclude, Trudeau's face will reappear on the White House floor, where he will deliver a joint statement alongside a Biden in person.
It's not necessarily the way that Biden, who highly values cultivating personal relationships with his foreign counterparts, might prefer to hold his first bilateral meeting.
But with the U.S.-Canada border still closed and his administration intent on modeling its own pandemic guide, the virtual meeting will have to suffice.
The two leaders are expected to draw up a "roadmap" to reinvigorate collaboration between their countries that will guide areas such as climate change and the economy, government officials said, characterizing the result as superior to the static joint statement or communiqué that is the usual result of a bilateral meeting.
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Sensitive cross-border trade issues are expected to emerge.
And the leaders will likely talk about China, including the arrest of two Canadians who were jailed there after Canada arrested a Huawei executive.
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A virtual meeting between Biden and Trudeau
The notion of meeting remotely is not new to most Americans, who are about to enter a second year of video calling and virtual meetings.
But former President Donald Trump had mostly ignored the physical distancing guidelines and continued to welcome foreign leaders amid the pandemic.
Trudeau's will be the first "virtual bilateral meeting" convened at the White House.
"They are not going to see each other in person, but the two leaders get along very well, they have a great relationship, so we wanted to create a smaller session so that the two of them could really have that experience that they would normally have in [the Oval Office]." a senior Biden administration official said on Monday, advancing a meeting that is expected to focus on the two countries' economic ties, fighting the pandemic and addressing climate change.
The pitfalls of virtual diplomacy were revealed last week when the leaders of the Group of 7 met in a video call.
The moderator, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, had to ask Chancellor Angela Merkel to silence his microphone when he was heard muttering in German and interrupted his opening remarks.
Senior US government officials said they wanted to elevate the Biden-Trudeau event to more than just a high-level Zoom.
By doing so, they preserved some of the optics and majesty of an official visit from a foreign leader, even if the leader himself was sitting in another country nearly 900 kilometers away.
“We are really trying to innovate in the virtual space to make sure that we are establishing that personal connection that the president enjoys with many leaders, but then of course creating that environment for them to really roll up their sleeves and talk about these issues in detail, as the president likes to do, "said the official.
Biden and Trudeau have already spoken on the phone and have known each other for years.
One of Biden's last trips as vice president was to attend a state dinner held in his honor in Ottawa.
During his toast, Biden recounted the call he received from Trudeau's father, Pierre, who was then serving as prime minister, when his first wife and daughter were killed in a car accident.
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Relations between the US and Canada
The relationship between the two countries is not without irritants.
Trudeau expressed disappointment that Biden was canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Alberta across the US-Canada border.
Officials said before the meeting that the decision was final.
Trudeau is expected to pressure Biden to make more COVID-19 vaccines available to Canadians.
Biden has not reversed a Trump-era decree blocking vaccine exports, meaning Canada relies on doses of Pfizer produced in Europe rather than those produced in neighboring Michigan.
Officials said Biden focused on "making sure all Americans are vaccinated," but wants to discuss ways to work together to fight the virus.
Canada also expects Biden to make an exception with its provision to "buy American products", which are intended to ensure that US taxpayer dollars are spent on domestic services.
But by and large, Biden and Trudeau are on the same page, at least compared to Trump, who enacted a combative trade agenda and personally insulted Trudeau on several occasions.
His only trip to Canada, for a G7 summit in the forests of northern Quebec, ended abruptly and bitterly.
While flying on Air Force One, he called Trudeau "very dishonest and weak" on Twitter and unsigned the final meeting document.
A cool but professional relationship continued until 2019, when Trudeau was caught on camera gossiping about Trump with Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Princess Anne during a reception at Buckingham Palace.
Trump called it "two-sided."
That is not likely to happen on Tuesday.
"Almost the priority of the Biden administration is one in which we have alignment of values and the space for collaboration with Canada," an official said before the talks.
"We share one of the strongest and deepest friendships between two countries in the world."
Joe BidenJustin Trudeau
