What's Happening Thursday at Summit of the Americas

The second full day of events at Summit of the Americas in downtown LA includes two speeches on President Biden's schedule.

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President Biden is scheduled to speak twice and meet with leaders of Canada and Brazil Thursday at the Summit of the Americas in downtown Los Angeles.

The three-day event brings together leaders of Western Hemisphere nations for wide-ranging discussions on topics like climate change, the pandemic, migration and economic development.

The Summit formally opened Wednesday. Here is Thursday's agenda for President Biden and Vice President Harris.

  • President Biden will join Vice President Harris to meet with leaders of Caribbean nations. The meeting will focus on deepening the U.S.-Caribbean partnership, the White House said. A new partnership led by Harris to address the climate crisis will be launched.
  • President Biden and Canada's Justin Trudeau will discuss how to strengthen cooperation between the two nations on economic development, the pandemic, migration and more, according to the White House.
  • President Biden and Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro will discuss the two nations' strategic partnership on issues such as combating the climate crisis and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.
  • President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will welcome heads of state and government and their spouses for a dinner at the Getty Villa Thursday night.

On Wednesday, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, fresh off Tuesday's primary election win, spoke at the event.

Garcetti welcomed attendees to Los Angeles. He called LA a "city of belonging, built by dreamers and doers from every corner of the hemisphere."

Newsom also took part in the welcoming event.

"You are in one of the most diverse cities -- Los Angeles, in the most diverse region, in the most diverse state -- California, in the world's most diverse democracy. And we're proud of that. We don't `tolerate' diversity, we celebrate it."

The summit will continue through Friday at the Los Angeles Convention Center. On Friday, the final day of the summit, Biden and other leaders are expected to sign the "Los Angeles Declaration on Migration,'' which the administration official described as a pact to pursue a comprehensive approach to addressing the crisis.

Mexico is among the nations expected to sign the declaration, despite the news this week that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will not be attending the gathering. He pulled out of the event in response to the Biden administration's decision declining to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the conference. Mexico, however, will still be represented at the event.

The exclusion of the three nations has led to questions about the legitimacy of the event overall, and increased the presence of critics. Opponents of the gathering's tenor are holding a meeting of their own, dubbed the People's Summit for Democracy, at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

NBCLA's Jonathan Lloyd contribute to this report.

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