To increase economic integration to be a more competitive region in the world, to seek a new agreement on migration and to leave behind certain differences in the political scene of the continent. These are the three priorities of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ahead of Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau’s visit to Mexico for the North American Leaders’ Summit next week. Así lo ha Adelantado Roberto Velasco, Jefe de la Unidad para Norteamérica de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, in an interview with EL PAÍS a unas horas de que los mandatarios de los tres países den a conocer sus agendas detalladas rumbo al encuentro diplomático, conocido informalmente as the top of the three amigos. “This is the most important meeting we have in terms of foreign policy,” says Velasco, “the most important relationship Mexico has is with its northern partners.”

The North American Leaders Summit is set to take place next week, January 9-11, and it is expected that throughout this Thursday more details will be known about the itinerary that the three leaders and their respective delegations will follow during the working tour in Mexico City. Biden will land in Mexico starting Sunday. Velasco points out that the arrival of the Canadian prime minister is scheduled for Monday. That same day, Biden and López Obrador will hold a bilateral meeting. The meeting between the three heads of government is scheduled for Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that Biden would land around 1 p.m. next Monday at Mexico City International Airport. Trudeau will do so a little later, around 2:30 p.m. The President of the United States will be received at the National Palace at 4:00 p.m. and will have a private conversation with López Obrador accompanied by their wives. Cabinet members from both governments will already be attending the bilateral meeting.

On the American side, Antony Blinken, Secretary of State; Alejandro Mayorkas, Security Secretary; Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; Chris Dodd, Special Advisor to the President for the Americas; Ken Salazar, United States Ambassador to Mexico; David Cohen, United States Ambassador to Canada, and Juan González, Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council. Mexico’s representative will be Ebrard, Interior Secretary Adán Augusto López; Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez; the Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Rogelio Ramírez de la O; the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, María Luisa Albores; the Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro; Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma; the head of the unit for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco, and the commissioner of the National Institute of Migration, Francisco Garduño.

Ebrard said Trudeau will join around 6 p.m. Monday and later there will be a closed-door dinner. The foreign secretary had said in December that there would first be a private meeting between the three leaders and that a ceremony would then be held with their working teams. Velasco confirms that they will first meet behind closed doors and that further contacts will be established in a more formal way. For Wednesday, Trudeau and López Obrador will have a bilateral meeting, according to the official. “There are going to be several opportunities for the two presidents and the prime minister to talk at length about the issues that interest them each,” he said.

The summit is expected to follow a similar format to the one held in November 2021 in Washington. “The world has changed a lot since the last time they met and they will be able to update the common vision they have of how North America can increase its cooperation to meet new challenges,” adds Velasco. The work agenda is marked by six areas: diversity; equity and inclusion; environment and climate change; competitiveness with the rest of the world; migration and development; Health and security. Specific agreements should be announced between the three countries for each of these points, as well as a joint declaration at the end of the meeting. Other agreements would be added to these agreements resulting from bilateral meetings: possibly new agreements or the updating of already existing mechanisms such as the Bicentenary Agreement (Security) or the Sonora Plan (Clean energy).

What does Mexico expect from the summit? Velasco points out that the country sees a great opportunity in regional integration in the global economic arena. Between the three countries, he points out, about a trillion dollars are traded every year. The Mexican delegation will promote greater cooperation based on the TMEC and a greater willingness for North America to act as a bloc and establish itself as a competitive region. On this front, the Mexican government will propose the creation of the Alliance for the Prosperity of the Peoples of the Americas, a regional agreement to reduce poverty and inequalities.

It is one of the three priorities. The second concerns migration. Mexico wants greater labor mobility and open channels for regular migration in response to migratory pressures and the strong demand for workers that continues to exist in the United States. The promise of an immigration deal has been a regular feature at the summit negotiating table, from the first in 2005 to the tenth edition which is about to take place.

Across the border, questions from the press focus on the White House’s response to the flow of undocumented immigrants and the decision to uphold Title 42, an exceptional measure passed during the pandemic that the Supreme Court ruled The closing of the US gates has increased pressure at the border, where tens of thousands of immigrants have been waiting in limbo for months. The US president told US media on Wednesday that his intention was to make a field visit to the border with Mexico, the first since arriving at the White House in January 2021, following the conclusion of the summit. No Mexican representatives are expected to participate in this tour.

Finally, López Obrador wants a dialogue with his counterparts on regional policy. The Mexican president has spoken in recent days of rethinking the Monroe Doctrine and urged Washington to reconsider its policy toward the Americas, after a past of interventionism. “It is a conversation that the two presidents have already had, to promote greater integration while respecting the sovereignty of the countries,” Velasco explains. “This means that there is no policy of blockade or trade sanctions which harm the companies of the countries and which have failed in the objectives which had been set”, he adds.

López Obrador was absent from the Summit of the Americas held last year in Los Angeles due to the exclusion of the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. “It was part of what Mexico passed on at the time,” says Velasco. “It is not only a question of talking about the points where there are differences, but also of looking for common points and a way forward for the region”, he nuances. It was one of the points raised by the Mexican president in a letter sent to Biden this week, although the contents have not been made public. “It’s not up to me to give details of a communication from the president,” the official said. Mexico and the United States have also had differences over the political crisis in Peru and the abrupt departure of Pedro Castillo, but Velasco clarifies that this is not an issue that has been discussed in recent meetings. “What we talked about was, in general, the region,” he says.

The conversation with Canada intersects with many of the commonalities with the United States, although there are two important points of agreement. In addition to close cooperation on labor mobility, new is an approach to solving the problems of indigenous and historically marginalized communities. “It is an excellent meeting point between the concerns of Minister Trudeau and the positions promoted by President López Obrador, there is a lot of international interest in this subject, which has been done with the Yaquis and with other indigenous peoples of Mexico,” Ebrard said. a few weeks ago.

“There are excellent relations with the United States and Canada,” says Velasco. “This summit will be a reflection of the very strong and dynamic cooperation that exists between the three countries and the great will that exists to continue to deepen this relationship,” he added. This is the first visit to Mexico by a US president in nearly 10 years. It is also Biden’s first visit to a Latin American country during his tenure.

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