FOG BLOG CANADA LOG: TRUDEAU MEETS WITH BIDEN AND LOPEZ-OBRADOR IN MEXICO THIS WEEK!

What to expect as Trudeau meets Biden, López Obrador this week Amigos or not, NAFTA allies need regional partnership to confront global problems The North American Leaders' Summit has grown larger and more formal since the original "Three Amigos" get-together then-U.S. president George W. Bush hosted in Texas in 2005.

As President Andrés Manuel López Obrador hosts U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on home turf in Mexico City this week, the global threats these regional partners must confront have also grown.

NALS (rhymes with "gals") — the acronym diplomats and stakeholders use for this sometimes irregular but now revived and recurring meeting of regional allies — now feels more businesslike than chummy. That's partly driven by the politics of the personalities at the table, but also because current challenges seem to require it.

"I wouldn't use Three Amigos anymore," said Carlo Dade, the director of the trade and investment centre at the Canada West Foundation, who also specializes in Latin American policy and holds a membership in the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. "I think it's a subtle indication of a shift... a bit more formal, a bit more staid.

"You always had a sort of closeness to the relationship that was thrown off when [Donald] Trump came in," Dade said, referencing how the former U.S. president shunned this summit and frequently blamed Mexico for America's problems.