Sawt Falasteen - Macron begins Canada visit focused on French connection and AI

During the trip, his second since his visit in 2018 for a G7 summit, Macron will hold several meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and then in Montreal.

For France, "Canada is an extremely close country, one of the closest outside the European Union," the French presidency said in a statement ahead of the trip.

Macron will discuss the promotion of the French language and culture in Canada beyond the Francophone province of Quebec.

Macron will have an official meeting with Trudeau in Ottawa, followed by a lunch devoted to artificial intelligence, and then a joint news conference in Montreal, which has a large French community of nearly 200,000 people.

Already active in the AI sector, Canada is of particular interest to Macron ahead of a summit on the technology in France in February.

Macron is also expected to praise "the attractiveness of France" to Canadian investors, according to the Elysee Palace.

Macron and Trudeau, who embodied a new generation of young leaders when they came to power, are now experiencing similar political setbacks.

Macron lost the legislative elections that he called this year and is now forced to share power with a right-wing Prime Minister.

And Trudeau on Wednesday survived a vote of no confidence as the popularity of his Liberal government has waned after nine years in office.

C.Hamad--SF-PST