After Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador complained in his first meeting with Biden about the United States’ “disdain” for the area, Biden defended American responsibilities to the world, and the “Three Amigos” summit began on Monday with a friendly dispute between two of the allies.
In a bilateral discussion with his Mexican counterpart, President Joe Biden got right to work in Mexico City. He vowed to address the ongoing fentanyl crisis at the border as well as the migration issues that spurred the announcement of a new policy last week. A “scourge,” he referred to the synthetic opioid.
He claimed that “we’re well on our way to doing” the task of combating what he dubbed “irregular migration.”
After Lopez Obrador hinted that his nation may accept more than 30,000 migrants deported back from the United States each month under Biden’s new policy, that followed.
But while he praised JFK’s massive Alliance for Progress aid program during the height of the Cold War and then lamented global injustice, the host appeared to question Biden in his own remarks, which were made in Spanish.
At the opening of the “Three Amigos” summit, President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were given a warm welcome. Next, the Mexican president expressed his “disdain” for Latin America.
In remarks concurrently translated into English, the left-wing Lopez Obrador described it as the “only meaningful thing that has been done in terms of cooperation… in our continent in more than half a century.”
‘To do away with this desertion, this scorn, and this forgetting for Latin America,’ he continued, is the time.
Two delegations were sat across a long table covered in white floral arrangements when Biden, who spoke second, interrupted.
According to him, “The United States offers more aid to not just the hemisphere, but around the world” than all other nations combined.
Lopez Obrador said through a translator that this is the moment ‘to do away of this abandonment, this disdain and this forgetfulness for Latin America’
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Biden retorted, “Unfortunately, our obligation really doesn’t end in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Western Hemisphere is unfortunately not where our obligation ends. It’s in the heart of Europe. Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are involved. I wish we could concentrate on just one thing. Days after signing a package to give Ukraine $47 billion in aid, he declared, “We have multiple foci.
Biden replied, “Just in the last 15 years, we’ve spent billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars throughout the hemisphere.”
Lopez Obrador also bemoaned the influx of Asian products into his nation, mirroring American worries over imports from China. Trade discussions in the U.S. were previously sparked by an influx of imports made with lower labor from Mexico.
In reference to products arriving in retailers, Lopez Obrador said, “They’re coming from Asia.”
Couldn’t we generate what we consume in America? What we are requesting is that. We certainly could,’ he replied.
Fighting the “scourge” of illegal fentanyl was something Biden mentioned.
The White House has also stated that one topic for discussion during the summit would be how to improve supply chains and have essential commodities supplied by friendly neighboring nations.
For fiscal 2022, the United States sought $2 billion in foreign aid for Latin America and the Caribbean, which would have been the largest allocation in ten years.
While the United States has long been the largest donor of help in terms of dollars, the size of its own economy is smaller than that of other wealthy countries.
Despite Lopez Obrador’s efforts to raise salaries, Mexico’s economy, which is mostly dependent on exports to the United States, has suffered throughout the pandemic and the global economic slump. Slow growth is being experienced by the nation.
The two men “reviewed progress toward their ambitious climate commitments, including achieving the emissions targets established in their nationally determined contributions and reaching the goals Mexico announced at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt in November,” according to a readout of the meeting provided by the White House.
Biden “addressed the recent announcement of new enforcement actions, paired with extended paths for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans in tackling irregular migration” and they “reaffirmed their commitment to deploy innovative initiatives to address irregular migration.” Additionally, Presidents Biden and López Obrador reaffirmed their dedication to addressing the underlying causes of migration.
After the White House said that a proposal to accept 30,000 additional legal migrants per month wasn’t a “set amount,” the two leaders talked at the beginning of a meeting on Monday. The Mexican president had previously hinted that his nation would be open to accepting more border crossers than had been previously disclosed that the US intended to send back.
After the Biden administration announced a proposal to welcome 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti who seek for asylum online, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan addressed the media on Monday.
We are only starting to put that into practice, so we’ll wait and see how it works before deciding where to go from there. Therefore, I don’t think we have a set number in mind,’ White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters from the president’s opulent hotel in Mexico City, hours after Biden’s arrival.
He was questioned over the earlier claim made by the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that Mexico may accept more immigrants from the United States than initially predicted—possibly as many as 30,000.
On Monday evening, President Joe Biden had dinner with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico. The two men rode together into town for an hour.
We don’t want to foretell the future, but this will be covered during the meeting, López Obrador remarked. He continued, saying that “the numbers may be expanded,” adding, “We support this type of initiatives, to provide people options, alternatives.”
For his part, Sullivan claimed that the figures, which the White House released last week, were the result of a “iterative process.”
The idea is that citizens from the countries should be encouraged by the US to apply for asylum online, while those who show up at the southern border would be deported.
Lopez Obrador indicated openness to accepting more than 30,000 migrants per month to be sent back from north of the border.
Migrants stand behind barbed wire to keep them from crossing into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday. The White House wants people to apply for asylum online
The U.S. plans to send about 30,000 migrants a month back to Mexico, according to a plan announced before Biden’s trip
Biden and the president of Mexico traveled a long distance in “the Beast” together.
He described how the initiative was initially launched by the administration for Venezuelans fleeing dictatorship and later expanded to include Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians.
Despite having few flights and problems with flowing water, Biden arrived on Sunday at the president’s favorite airport, the new Felipe Angeles International Airport.
Biden, who is used to whizzing through downtown, was forced to endure a nearly hour-long commute to his hotel as a result. But for the whole of the hour-long trip in “the Beast,” Biden’s presidential limo, he was joined by the president.
That was Biden’s largest-ever diplomatic effort. Although he was scheduled to receive his daily briefing from the president, he doesn’t have any public appearances until after 4 o’clock local time.
Sullivan said the limo journey was helpful but wouldn’t give any more specifics.
“He had the chance to travel with President Lopez Obrador yesterday from the airport back into town, giving them the chance to just have a one-on-one chat,” the source said. In a sense, that’s how people currently perceive the world and what’s on their thoughts. I believe they both learned a lot from it, he remarked.
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