The North American Leaders Summit ended with praise, veiled claims and promises. Joe Biden, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Justin Trudeau ended a busy day of diplomacy on Tuesday with a declaration of intent: to transform North America into a commercial and political bloc with its own weight that can compete in the current geopolitical scenario. On the ground, beyond the agreements signed on paper, which gradually became known, the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada have used the so-called Three Amigos Summit to put their chests in their faces of criticism, with they face in their countries, enhance their image as leaders and advance their agendas in the regional forum. “You’re the first US president who didn’t build a meter of wall, and I thank you,” López Obrador told his US counterpart. For his part, Biden has defended his border management plan, twice ruling out that it was a “too soft” or “too strong” program. Trudeau has stated that his country is ready for global challenges and that he will support his alliance with Washington.
Biden brought a broad work agenda with him on his first visit to Mexico in nearly two years in office. The US President wanted to speak about the fentanyl trade, the latest chapter in the war on drugs in the country where the cartels have established themselves as the main source of the opioid that overdoses tens of thousands of people each year. He was trying to give legitimacy to a new immigration plan announced last week, under which he plans to take in 30,000 immigrants each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela in exchange for the Mexican government taking care of those who don’t meet the requirements fulfill. .
The US President said it was time to oil regional supply chains and kept insisting on the need to invest in the China-Taiwan dominated semiconductor trading space. He answered questions about the discovery of secret documents from his time as Vice President. “I want to thank you, Mr. President, for taking a step forward and accommodating those in Mexico who are not following the legal pathways that we have established, rather than trying to cross the border between our countries,” he said White House officials. .
After completing the triple work trip, López Obrador has failed to consider the burden of border security or the impact of the war on drug trafficking in the Latin American country, in a struggle that has lasted for more than 15 years It has left hundreds of thousands dead. The last 29 fatalities were the high cost of capturing Ovidio Guzmán, El Chapo’s son, four days after Biden’s arrival.
Instead, the Mexican president has hailed the existence of another spirit to confront the humanitarian drama at the border and a pledge to invest billions of dollars in development cooperation tackling the causes of the exodus in Central America. He scored a point with his supporters by getting Biden and Trudeau to land at Felipe Ángeles International Airport, a symbol of his mandate that is not certified for commercial flights to the United States. And he has asked Biden to lobby before Congress for the regularization of 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, an immigration deal no Mexican president has managed to bind. He accepted the challenge to talk about migration, but on his own terms, like the other leaders.
Trudeau has welcomed North America’s intention to become more competitive and rise to global challenges. “There’s still a lot more to do,” he told media at the closing ceremony. The prime minister has appreciated his host’s praise for trying to expand work visas for Mexican immigrants. But he has been more focused on building a common front with Washington to deal with Russia’s “brutal war” against Ukraine and the never-ending crisis in Haiti. During the meeting, the democratic onslaught in Brazil was also briefly discussed. The Canadian leader has delivered a limited speech in French and English, stressing that his relationship with Biden is unbeatable compared to the “uncertainty” that prevailed during Donald Trump’s administration.
The joint statement dealt with the six thematic axes initially raised, but avoids quantifying the economic agreements or specifying concrete plans against regional threats. It focuses on common diagnoses of diversity, equity and inclusion; climate change and environment; Competitiveness; migration and development; Health and safety. “Leaders are determined to strengthen the security, prosperity, sustainability and integration of our region,” the official document said.
The closing ceremony of the trilateral summit left room for only one question from a reporter from each country. The selected journalists tried to get the three leaders to answer their questions, but protocol prevented this. Despite this, López Obrador has stood in front of the microphone for more than 20 minutes to review his political project, in an intervention that has ranged from his social programs and his promise to stamp out corruption, to the ill health of vapers and his vision of how young people are should try their luck without having to take drugs.
Biden and Trudeau waited patiently, staring into space, nodding at the innuendo and ducking their heads briefly after pausing during the speech, clearly exhausted from the avalanche of official acts. It was a morning conference of the kind the Mexican President gives every day. Sometimes there were laughter and stunned faces among the reporters who attended the reporting and the delegations from the three governments. In another section, the photographers, disrespectful, started whistles that crept into the transmission of the act to demand that the speech be stopped once and for all. “You give very long answers, don’t you?” a foreign journalist ironically asked her local colleagues. “I’m overtime and it’s very cold, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” said López Obrador with a smile before posing again with his guests.
Biden has apologized to reporters for not answering their questions and drove straight to the airport two hours behind his original itinerary. The convoy, with around thirty escort vehicles, made its way through downtown Mexico City to get him aboard Air Force One, which has landed in Mexico for the first time in almost a decade and is bound for Washington. López Obrador and Trudeau have scheduled a bilateral meeting for this Wednesday.
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