Top U.S. diplomat pays virtual ‘visits’ to Mexico, Canada

Diplomats — sat beside stacks of briefing papers, flanked by flags and emphasized their closeness. But they were geographically far apart Friday as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, because of the pan- demic, started a new chap- ter in North American relations with virtual visits to Mexico and Canada his — first official trip.

Though symbolically important in any administration, the decision by Pres- ident Joe Biden to dispatch Blinken to Mexico and Canada for the first visits, even virtually, is part of a broader effort to turn the page from a predecessor who at times had fraught relations with both nations. The three signed a revamped trade accord last year after then President Don- ald Trump demanded a rene gotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The secretary began his virtual visits with Mexico, a country Trump repeatedly disparaged in his campaign and early in his presidency, though relations turned more cordial under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

“I wanted to ‘visit,’ in quotation marks, Mexico first to demonstrate the importance that we attach, President Biden attaches, to the relationship between our countries,” Blinken told his counterpart, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.

Blinken’s meetings with Mexico and Canada, two of the largest U.S. trade partners, were expected to cover economic ground and efforts to fight COVID-19, which has prompted all three countries to close borders to all but essential traffic.