The American president, Joe Biden, and his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, held a first cordial meeting on Monday in which they both agreed to have an equal relationship, after four years of highs and lows in bilateral loops.
“We see Mexico as an equal, not as someone who is south of our border.” With this sentence, Biden set the tone for their first virtual encounter with López Obrador, A president who especially values respect for Mexican sovereignty.
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However, in the face of the request of López Obrador to be able to count on anti-vaccine vaccines, the team of the President Biden assured that EE. UU. it has no intention of sharing the supply of vaccines against covid-19 from his country with Mexico.
However, Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said before the meeting that the White House had no intention of sharing its supply of vaccines in the short term, at least until it guarantees that they are sufficient to immunize all Americans.
“No, the president (Biden) has made it clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to all Americans. That is our focus.”, He indicated.
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However, the two leaders pledged “close collaboration” to the fight the pandemic, Especially with regard to “Exchange of information and development of border policies”, according to the joint statement.
The president (Biden) has made it clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to all Americans. This is our focus
The Mexican president has questioned that vaccines which Mexico acquired from Pfizer and BioNTech occur in a plant in Belgium, because EE. UU. has required its pharmacists to reserve production within its territory.
“Although Pfizer also produces vaccines in the United States, they send them to us from Europe”, Recalled López Obrador this Monday.
In addition to the dose of Pfizer, Mexico has committed 79.4 million from the British AstraZeneca, 35 million from the Chinese Cansino, 24 million from the Sputnik V rus, 10 million from China Sinovac and 51,400,000 from the program Covax of the World Health Organization (WHO).
after, “The next step is economic recovery, and that will be ensuring that our neighbors, Mexico and Canada, handle the pandemic in a similar way, so that we can open our borders and rebuild better,” Biden said. the focus of the Administration is to make sure all Americans are vaccinated. “
“And once we’ve met that goal, we’ll be happy to talk about steps beyond that,” underlined.
Respect and equality
The Mexican president thanked Biden for being willing to relate to his country on the basis of ‘respect and equality’, and recalled a famous phrase from the former president of his country Porfirio Diaz, who said: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.”
“Now I can say that it’s wonderful for Mexico to be close to God and not so far from the United States,” added López Obrador, To what Biden watched from the White House through a screen, due to the pandemic.
These brief statements by both at the beginning of the meeting made clear their common desire to tighten ties so that “they are even better” in the future, in the words of López Obrador, who has hoped to maintain a “constant dialogue” with Biden.
The virtual meeting contrasted with two other parties: what Biden held last week with his other neighbor on the continent, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and what Lopez Obrador shared last July with the former US President Donald Trump in the White House.
Tuning in on migration issues
In a joint written statement, Biden and López Obrador they pledged to promote “migration policies that recognize the dignity of migrants and the imperative of orderly, safe and regular migration.”
They agreed to work together and with the Governments of the North Central American Triangle for “Addressing the root causes of regional migration, improve migration management and develop legal avenues for migration “, according to the statement, distributed by the White House and the Mexican Chancellery.
The statement did not mention López Obrador’s plan to propose to Biden an agreement for them Mexican workers can migrate to the United States legally, based on the Bracero Program launched during World War II to compensate for the American labor deficit.
The White House has not commented on the issue, but it is difficult to make it a priority, as it is now embroiled in a battle to pass immigration reform that would include a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people who they live in the United States.
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Biden wanted to make it clear that he appreciates the Hispanic population of his country, of which “60% are Mexican-American, and they are an integral part of history” of the nation, he stressed before López Obrador.
Three very different meetings
Personal attunement was clearly superior in these two appointments: Trudeau, who maintained a notoriously strained relationship with Trump, made clear his relief at the return of “U.S. leadership” from the hand of Biden, in a statement to term of the meeting that the White House did not schedule in the case of López Obrador.
The brief virtual meeting pales in addition compared to the extensive program that Trump dedicated last year to Lopez Obrador, who flattered the then US president, despite its anti-immigrant rhetoric and pressures and threats of tariffs in Mexico.
And beyond the forms, both Biden and López Obrador showed signs of wanting to move forward in the relationship in a pragmatic way, especially in matters of immigration, where there is more agreement: the Mexican leader has applauded the American for stopping the construction of the border wall and the “Stay in Mexico” program.
Silence on electricity reform
Although they reaffirmed their commitment to the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), they did not mention in public the Mexican electricity reform, which worries Washington because it benefits the state-owned company to the detriment of private generators, especially foreign and renewable.
Biden and López Obrador decided to restart the High Level Economic Dialogue interrupted during the Trump era, and agreed to “explore areas of cooperation” in the fight against the climate crisis.
The format of the meeting, through screens installed in the respective offices, did not lend itself to great warm gestures, but Biden wanted to show that he knew Mexico well, a country he visited four times when he was vice president (2009-2017 ).
“I even paid my respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe”Recalled Biden, who showed López Obrador rosary beads that his son Beau was carrying when he died of brain cancer in 2015.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
* With information from agencies
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