Trump sending top team to Mexico to woo next president
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is sending a team of top officials to meet Mexico’s president-elect to show the importance he places on the countries’ relationship, the US said, after months of deeply strained ties.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will lead a high-level delegation for meetings with anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide victory in Mexico’s July 1 elections, opening a new chapter in what has been a troubled relationship since Trump came to office.
“This is an important trip scheduled at a key moment in our bilateral relationship,” said a senior US State Department official in a background briefing on Thursday.
He confirmed that Pompeo would be joined by Trump’s son-in-law, senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner; Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen; and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“This delegation is noteworthy and a testament to the importance the administration and the United States place on the bilateral relationship,” he added.
The officials will also meet with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who leaves office on Dec 1, and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
All issues in the neighbouring countries’ relationship will be on the table, including trade, migration, security and the border, the State Department official said.
US-Mexican relations have been strained since Trump won election in 2016 after a campaign laced with anti-Mexican insults, attacks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, and promises to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
US tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminium, Trump’s “zero-toler- ance” policy on undocumented immigrants, separation of migrant families and two abruptly cancelled visits to Washington by President Pena Nieto have only added to the tension.
Lopez Obrador, widely known as “AMLO,” had vowed during the campaign to “put (Trump) in his place”.
But the two men appear to have hit it off in their first post-election phone call.