This summer, the United States, Canada and Mexico will jointly host the World Cup, organizing a tournament that will bring together 48 national teams for 104 matches, with a combined crowd of 6 million fans expected at the stadiums and 5 billion broadcast viewers worldwide.

When FIFA announced the winning bid eight years ago, it symbolized North America’s remarkable success at economic integration. Today, the continent’s “three amigos” are no longer on friendly terms. But there is still time to turn things around, with the World Cup offering unique opportunities to remind the co-hosts of the advantages of continental camaraderie.

President Donald Trump has raised tensions with his counterparts repeatedly, and gratuitously, during his second term. He decreed that the name of the Gulf of Mexico be changed to “Gulf of America,” demanded that Canada become the 51st U.S. state and slapped tariffs on neighbors that are highly dependent on access to U.S. markets. He has threatened to unilaterally bomb drug cartels in Mexico to reduce fentanyl trafficking and pressured Mexico to withhold vital oil deliveries from Cuba, its longtime partner.

These bad vibes have raised concerns that the July review of the North American free trade deal—known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA—could easily go off the rails, even potentially resulting in its cancellation. In January, Trump described the pact as “irrelevant,” though Mexico is America’s top trading partner.

Instead of showcasing continental solidarity, the World Cup could wind up drawing attention to North America’s spiraling disintegration. But it does not have to be this way. The tournament is not only the world’s most popular sporting event; it is also an opportunity for Trump to spend more time with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, and to address the metastasizing irritants in these relationships.

Setting aside the Oval Office ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year, Trump is typically eager to use meetings with foreign leaders to strengthen cooperation. That was true even when, in February, he hosted President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, whom U.S. officials had only recently accused of drug smuggling. By contrast, at the White House, Trump praised the Colombian leader, while inscribing “You are great” in the copy of Trump’s 1987 autobiography, “The Art of the Deal,” that he gifted to Petro.

For that reason, it is not farfetched to imagine Trump taking advantage of the important diplomatic opportunity offered by the World Cup. At minimum, Trump, Sheinbaum and Carney should jointly attend at least one match in each country, which would give them an opportunity to cheer side-by-side in the stadium before discussing policy. Trump should set the tone by inviting his counterparts to join him at the first World Cup game in the United States, when the U.S. men’s squad will face off against Paraguay outside Los Angeles. A meeting in California, and similar get-togethers in Mexico City and Toronto, could lead to breakthroughs on trade, migration and security that would otherwise be difficult for ministers and negotiators to hash out.

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Leaders’ meetings on the sidelines of soccer matches could lead to breakthroughs on trade, migration and security that would otherwise be difficult for ministers and negotiators to hash out.

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For now, the impending USMCA review feels like the “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” But a presidential summit could overcome the major fault lines, including U.S. industrial policy and trade barriers, Mexico’s interventions in its energy sector, and disputes over labor and environmental issues.

Similarly, the World Cup could provide a helpful environment for the three leaders to resolve disagreements on migration policy. After all, Trump seems to be reconsidering his hardline policies as the November congressional midterm elections approach, apparently anxious about alienating Hispanic voters. At the same time, the tournament is demonstrating the contribution that foreign visitors, including from Latin America, make to the American economy.

Finally, soccer summits would offer a platform to discuss cooperation in the fight against organized criminal groups that the White House labels narco-terrorists and compares to al-Qaida.

Neither Sheinbaum nor Carney participated in Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” meeting earlier this month, when he gathered 12 conservative leaders from across the region at his golf course in Doral, Florida, and promoted a lead role for the region’s armed forces in stomping out drug-runners. “We’ll use missiles, right into the living room” of cartel bosses, Trump said.

Even so, both Mexico and Canada are committed to the fight, and Sheinbaum and Carney would likely welcome a conversation on how to thwart fentanyl trafficking through improved law enforcement partnerships. Indeed, Mexico’s recent operation to capture a notorious cartel boss known as “El Mencho” showcased the value of U.S.-Mexico intelligence cooperation.

There is plenty of precedent for “sports diplomacy.” Perhaps the most famous example was Richard Nixon’s “ping-pong diplomacy” in the early 1970s, which paved the way for the U.S.-China rapprochement and Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing. More recently, the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang facilitated rare high-level engagement between North and South Korea, briefly easing tensions on the peninsula.

Tensions in North America are hardly as ominous as between the two Koreas, but there is still a lot at stake. The United States, Mexico and Canada share deep economic ties, including cross-border supply chains that facilitate $2 trillion in annual trade. The United States and Mexico alone trade $1.5 million in goods every minute. Canada accounts for nearly 60 percent of U.S. crude oil imports.

All that surely justifies a few short flights for the three leaders.

Of course, all of the complex trade, migration and security issues between the three countries cannot be resolved over the course of the World Cup. Still, soccer summitry would deepen personal ties, offer the possibility for greater policy alignment and make this tournament once again a symbol of North American partnership.