After Summit Snub, Biden Meets With Mexican President

WASHINGTON — One month after snubbing President Biden by refusing to attend a summit meant to point out American management, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico joined Mr. Biden on the White Home on Tuesday to shore up a relationship the USA must gradual mass migration and bolster financial ties.

The notability of Mr. López Obrador’s mere presence alongside Mr. Biden underscored how awkward an already complicated relationship between the USA and Mexico has change into. Mr. López Obrador skipped out on Mr. Biden’s Summit of the Americas final month after criticizing the USA for not inviting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. He has additionally challenged the USA on power insurance policies, drug enforcement and the prosecution of Julian Assange.

The 2 leaders sought to reaffirm a partnership they each agreed was crucial to deal with world inflation amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, migration and the surge in fentanyl trafficking. However Mr. López Obrador additionally appeared to point there was nonetheless rigidity between the administrations.

The Mexican president, who seldom passes up a chance to poke the Biden administration, at one level talked about how People residing alongside the border have crossed into Mexico for fuel at decrease costs amid hovering inflation.

“Despite our variations and likewise regardless of our grievances that aren’t very easy to overlook with time or with good needs,” Mr. López Obrador stated, many occasions “we’ve been in a position to coincide and we’ve been in a position to work collectively pretty much as good buddies and true allies.”

In a roughly 30-minute response to Mr. Biden’s temporary opening remarks, Mr. López Obrador at occasions seemed to be giving a historical past lecture, quite than a coverage framework, citing the partnership between the 2 nations beneath President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal insurance policies.

“We had circumstances that have been fairly much like our current circumstances,” he stated. “And from these insurance policies, we must be extracting good classes.”

Mr. López Obrador additionally touched on one among Mr. Biden’s biggest political vulnerabilities: excessive fuel costs. After telling Mr. Biden he hoped “that Congress approves or passes” proposals to decrease fuel costs, Mr. Biden retorted, “It has gone down for 30 days in a row.”

The Mexican president additionally famous that People have been crossing the border to purchase fuel, saying it’s a greenback cheaper. He didn’t observe that it prices much less in Mexico as a result of the federal government subsidizes home fuel costs with cash it makes from the crude oil it produces.

Mr. Biden’s aides insist the connection between the 2 leaders is productive. Regardless of not attending Mr. Biden’s summit in June, Mexico did assist a declaration accomplished throughout the gathering that dedicated to cooperating on increasing authorized pathways for international employees, investing in border safety, tackling smuggling networks and addressing record-high unlawful migration.

“We see Mexico as an equal associate,” Mr. Biden stated on Tuesday in remarks lasting slightly below 10 minutes, noting the necessity to strengthen the financial system and strategy migration north “as a shared hemispheric problem.”

All through his presidency, Mr. Biden has confused the necessity to collaborate with Mexico and Central American nations to deal with the basis causes of migration and deter hovering unlawful border crossings — a humanitarian disaster that has challenged his White Home. In recent times, a majority of migrants crossing the border have been Mexicans, a shift from a lot of the Obama and Trump administrations when Central People entered the USA in file numbers.

Mexico agreed to buy as much as 20,000 tons of milk powder from the USA to help households in rural and concrete communities, in addition to a million tons of U.S. fertilizer, in keeping with an announcement from the Nationwide Safety Council. Mr. Biden additionally credited Mr. López Obrador “for additionally stepping up” to problem visas for Central American migrants to work in Mexico.

Mr. Biden added that each the USA and Mexico would put money into up to date infrastructure alongside the border. The nations are working to enhance know-how alongside port entries to higher detect narcotics, in addition to surveillance towers and sensors to assist border brokers observe unlawful crossings, in keeping with a senior administration official. Whereas the Trump administration invested billions of {dollars} to assemble a whole lot of miles of bodily border wall, Mr. Biden campaigned on investing in know-how to discourage such crossings.

The White Home highlighted on Tuesday that Mexico would make investments $1.5 billion in infrastructure alongside the border, noting former President Donald J. Trump’s unfulfilled promise to make Mexico pay for the wall. However the Biden administration didn’t specify what the initiatives Mexico would fund.

Mr. Biden, noting the deaths of 51 migrants who have been discovered trapped in an deserted truck in San Antonio, additionally stated the 2 nations wanted to intercept smugglers encouraging migrants to cross the border. The administration started an anti-smuggling initiative with different nations that has resulted in roughly 3,000 arrests since April, he stated.

“We’d like each nation within the area to affix us,” Mr. Biden stated.

Mr. López Obrador cited the enlargement of short-term work visas for Mexicans and Central People as one of the efficient methods to encourage authorized immigration. Through the summit final month, Mexico dedicated to offering short-term work for a minimum of 15,000 Guatemalans, whereas the USA stated it will dedicate $65 million in grants to agricultural employers that rent farmers from Central American nations.

Andrew Selee, the president of the Migration Coverage Institute, a analysis institute in Washington, lauded the hassle however stated implementation would probably take time.

“It’s gradual going as a result of they want employers to need to go recruit in Central America and they should make it as straightforward for them to course of the visas,” he stated.

Mr. Selee stated the 2 leaders have been most likely extra targeted on addressing the migration and financial woes affecting each of their nations, quite than Mr. López Obrador’s absence on the summit.

In some methods, Mr. López Obrador’s relationship with Mr. Biden is extra complicated than the one he had with Mr. Trump, who threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico earlier than finally gaining the nation as an important ally for his border insurance policies.

Regardless of Mr. López Obrador’s efforts to champion himself as an advocate for migrants, he additionally agreed to adjust to U.S. insurance policies that empowered American border brokers to quickly flip migrants again to Mexico. In alternate, Mr. Trump largely avoided urgent him on home issues.

Mr. Biden has returned to a broader strategy, one the place the USA pursues nationwide pursuits whereas additionally emphasizing the necessity to counter corruption and make sure the safety of human rights. He’s, nevertheless, simply as reliant on Mexico to discourage migration, giving Mr. López Obrador vital leverage. For a lot of this 12 months, the administration continued to lean on restrictive Trump-era insurance policies that rely on cooperation with Mexico.

The strain between the governments has existed since Mr. Biden was elected, when Mr. López Obrador initially refused to acknowledge his victory. The Mexican president has additionally pursued power insurance policies that jeopardize American funding within the sector, prompting the Workplace of the U.S. Commerce Consultant to specific in March “critical issues with the deteriorating trajectory of Mexico’s power insurance policies.”

In current weeks, Mr. López Obrador has continued to lash out on the administration, criticizing the American authorities for bringing espionage expenses towards Mr. Assange. The British authorities permitted Mr. Assange’s extradition to the USA final month.

Mr. López Obrador vowed to “begin a marketing campaign to tear down the Statue of Liberty” if Mr. Assange is “sentenced to the utmost penalty” in the USA.

“There shouldn’t be selfishness between nations, peoples which can be neighbors and buddies,” Mr. López Obrador stated towards the tip of his remarks. “President Biden,” he added, “we belief you since you respect our sovereignty.”

Mr. Biden responded by noting that his counterpart had “a variety of vital issues to say.”

“The thrust of what you’re saying, we agree with,” he stated. “We have to work nearer collectively.”

Natalie Kitroeff contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.