Tuesday's meeting between President Joe Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico will, according to the White House, show off the relationship's underlying strength rather than the leaders' recent differences on matters like energy and Ukraine policy.
After unsuccessfully pressing the United States to invite the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela — all nations with anti-democratic regimes — to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last month, Lopez Obrador declined Biden's invitation. The Mexican president also slammed the United States for moving more quickly to fund Ukraine's military than financial aid to Central America, calling the U.S. support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia "a crude miscalculation."
There are also political undercurrents in Washington, where leading Republicans have blasted the Democratic president's administration for not doing more to stop the movement and pointed to an increase in the number of migrants from Mexico and Central America entering the United States illegally.
Biden and López Obrador will meet in person for the second time at the White House. They also had multiple calls and communicated online during the coronavirus pandemic last year. The Mexican first lady Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller was hosted by the first lady Jill Biden at the White House's Cinco de Mayo event this spring.
The discussions on Tuesday will take place just before Biden departs for Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, and Israel.
The U.S.-Mexico relationship is a priority, according to senior Biden administration officials, and the two nations intend to announce joint initiatives to modernise and improve infrastructure along crucial stretches of the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border, strengthen law enforcement cooperation against fentanyl smuggling, and promote clean energy.
A working group to encourage new options for employees to migrate legally will also be announced, and the authorities expressed the hope that these conversations may eventually be broadened to include labour from other nations.
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