Lopez thanks Trump for not mentioning border wall

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday expressed his gratitude to Donald Trump for avoiding in public the thorny subject of the US president’s promised border wall during the two leaders’ summit in Washington earlier this week.

Lopez Obrador also thanked his US counterpart for a less “discriminatory tone” during his visit, a rare reference from the Mexican leader to Trump’s past insults towards Mexico and its migrants.

“We thank him for not raising the subject (of the border wall) in public,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference, adding that the wall was mentioned during a White House dinner “but without the purpose of imposing anything.”

Lopez Obrador said Trump had drastically changed the way he talks about Mexico’s people.

Lopez Obrador told television network Telemundo that in the past, Trump, a Republican, had a certain “vision” of Mexicans. But that was different now, he said.

“He has completely changed his rhetoric,” Lopez Obrador said. “The relationship with President Trump is very good and, as I said yesterday, he has treated us like friends, not as distant neighbours.”

Dating back to his successful 2016 presidential campaign, Trump made the construction of a wall on the country’s southern border a signature pledge, while also promising to force Mexico to pay for it.

His administration has constructed sections of high fencing along the border.

The Washington summit between the two presidents mostly focused on economic issues, in particular the celebration of a revamped North American trade accord that took effect at the beginning of this month.

Right ater the meeting, a Twiter account describing itself as the “official bilingual account” for Trump’s campaign began using footage of Lopez Obrador praising the US president, in a bid to portray him as a friend of the Hispanic community.