Tillerson, Mexico’s foreign minister discuss regional issues
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met in Washington on Wednesday with his Mexican counterpart for wideranging talks on regional and bilateral economic and security issues, the State Department said.
The agenda for the top US diplomat’s meeting with Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray included “a range of bilateral and regional issues, including economic cooperation, security, and migration,” according to the department’s acting spokesman Mark Toner.
“They discussed cooperation in Central America and ongoing efforts to combat transnational criminal organisations,” Toner’s statement said.
“They also discussed efforts at the Organisation of American States to encourage Venezuela to resolve its current political and humanitarian issues,” it continued.
“Together, the two leaders are fulfilling their presidents’ instruction to strengthen this strategic bilateral relationship.”
Earlier Wednesday, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testified at a congressional hearing that illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border has plunged in the past two months as President Donald Trump’s crackdown takes hold.
The decline comes after a surge in the last three months of 2016 that appeared to be a reaction to the looming crackdown Trump promised in his presidential campaign.
Trump has pledged to expel the estimated 11-12 million undocumented immigrants in the US— the largest portion of them from Mexico — a subject of considerable friction for the two North American neighbours.
Trump, in one of his most famous campaign pledges before being elected president last November, has pledged to build a wall along the entire southern frontier to halt the flow of undocumented migrants into the US. — AFP