Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties

[rooster59]

Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties

By Lesley Wroughton and Sharay Angulo

 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City, Mexico July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump wants to strengthen and improve ties with Mexico after "bumps in the road," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Mexico's next leader on Friday, following the leftist's landslide victory this month.

 

President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in turn, handed Pompeo a letter addressed to Trump with his plans to reset the relationship, focussing on trade, immigration, development and security, said Marcelo Ebrard, an aide to the incoming president.

 

Ebrard called the encounter "frank, respectful, and cordial."

 

The visit by Pompeo and other top U.S. officials was, Pompeo said, intended to signal the "deep importance" Trump gives to what has been an increasingly strained bilateral relationship.

 

Trump has irked Mexico with demands that it pay for a border wall and his comments that it does nothing to slow illegal immigration. He has also pushed to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to favour the United States.

 

"We know there have been bumps in the road between our two countries but President Trump is determined to make the relationship between our peoples better and stronger," Pompeo said at the start of the 50-minute meeting with Lopez Obrador, who will take office on Dec. 1.

 

Senior officials including Jared Kushner, Trump's adviser and son-in-law, were in the delegation led by Pompeo, which earlier met outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.

 

Since Trump's election, Videgaray in particular has sought to avoid the collapse of the trillion-dollar NAFTA trade deal, cultivating close contact with the White House through Kushner and supporting closer diplomatic and security ties, U.S. and Mexican officials say.

 

Previous attempts by officials to pour oil on the waters of an increasingly turbulent bilateral relationship have been undone by intemperate tweets from the U.S. president himself.

 

Lopez Obrador has said that he wants good relations with the United States. Despite ideological differences with Trump, the two men share nationalist and populist leanings.

 

But the president-elect's plans to shake up Mexico's war on drug cartels, including by reducing security cooperation with the United States, could put him on a collision course with Trump.

 

BORDER SECURITY

 

Speaking to the media after the meeting with Lopez Obrador, Pompeo said he had "respectfully reinforced" the importance of border security.

 

"Americans must be able to see improvements that better protect our national sovereignty," he said, adding that it was important to have "strong, fair and reciprocal" trade ties.

 

Ebrard said the border wall was not mentioned in the talks, adding that he was "reasonably optimistic" that ties could improve between the two neighbours in coming years.

 

Lopez Obrador's plan includes pressing the United States to reduce the flow of migration northwards by helping to create better living standards in Mexico and Central America, his team has said.

 

Foreign minister Videgaray said the outgoing and incoming governments would present a "common front" towards the United States.

 

After Pena Nieto met the delegation, he issued a statement calling for the quick reunification of immigrant children separated from their parents under Trump's "zero tolerance" border policy.

 

Outside the house in Mexico City's scruffy but hip Roma neighbourhood where the meeting with Lopez Obrador was held, a small group of protesters, including immigrants deported from the United States, shouted slogans.

 

'I was deported. My crime? Being brown,' one placard read. Maria Garcia, 60, held up another that read: 'Where are the migrant children?'

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-14

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"Americans must be able to see improvements that better protect our national sovereignty,"

Well, that would depend on Congress to impeach Trump, not on Mexico.

[ballpoint]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties

I didn't know that Mexico is a major tie exporter.  Trump could certainly do with better ones though.

 

[Tug]

I don’t envy him trump has caused so much damage

[Lungstib]

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Lopez Obrador's plan includes pressing the United States to reduce the flow of migration northwards by helping to create better living standards in Mexico and Central America,

Considering how little is being done to create better living standards for the poor inside the US I see no hope in anything being done farther afield. Poverty, homelessness, health and education problems abound and full-time jobs with decent living wages are rare. Many years of military and political effort was put into causing that flow of migrants from ruthless and violent Central American dictators and there's not likely to be a change in policy any time soon.

[tomacht8]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

I don’t envy him trump has caused so much damage

trump has hurt the pride of an entire nation. analogously as if he wanted to hold out the cockroaches with a wall. Mexicans will not forget that so soon.

[Redline]

Pompeo won’t last.  He will get run down, quit or fired like the rest of them

[sirineou]

"Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties"

Why, he cant get quality ties from China anymore?

[Tailwagsdog]

Everybody wants to criticize a USA president that actually has balls. So many of us are sick of people that dont take responsibility for their actions but demand rights. Central Americans need to fight for justice & equity in their own countries, China has sucked up the business that these countries could of had, but they all want to be Venezuela, The only shining light is Colombia. Trump is hated by the bleeding hearts, soft cocks, & apologists, so he must be doing something right.

[Jingthing]

21 minutes ago, Tailwagsdog said:

...
Trump is hated by the bleeding hearts, soft cocks, & apologists, so he must be doing something right.

Confusing. You say that "trump" is hated by apologists but you come across as a world class apologist for him.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, Redline said:

Pompeo won’t last.  He will get run down, quit or fired like the rest of them

I'm not so sure. They seem to have a weird chemistry going on.

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, Tailwagsdog said:

The only shining light is Colombia.

I think you need to do a little more research on Colombia. Its widely available and mentions the USA as a part of the problem.

From Colombia Reports:  "Under former President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Colombia’s US-backed security forces murdered more civilians than FARC guerrillas have in more than 30 years.

This is the most inconvenient truth Colombia’s electorate will have to accept once a Truth Commission and a Transitional Justice Court take force to seek impartial justice for the country’s 8 million victims".

[Tailwagsdog]

1 minute ago, Lungstib said:

I think you need to do a little more research on Colombia. Its widely available and mentions the USA as a part of the problem.

From Colombia Reports:  "Under former President  Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Colombia’s US-backed security forces murdered more civilians than  FARC guerrillas have in more than 30 years.

This is the most inconvenient truth Colombia’s electorate will have to accept once a Truth Commission and a Transitional Justice Court take force to seek impartial justice for the country’s 8 million victims".

Yes but they are making incredible progress economically and creating a socially just society. We dont live in a perfect world however compare Colombia with El Salvador, Venezuela & a few others and you start to have hope for this part of the world.

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

Everybody wants to criticize a USA president that actually has balls. So many of us are sick of people that dont take responsibility for their actions but demand rights. Central Americans need to fight for justice & equity in their own countries, China has sucked up the business that these countries could of had, but they all want to be Venezuela, The only shining light is Colombia. Trump is hated by the bleeding hearts, soft cocks, & apologists, so he must be doing something right.

So speaks the Schadenrfreude Party rep.

[quandow]

For those of us who had no idea:

 

scha·den·freu·de

ˈSHädənˌfroidə/

noun

 

1. pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

[quandow]

"Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties"

 

Given the history of Pompeo's NK meeting and the verbal abuse Trump has thrown at Mexico, I wouldn't hold my breath for those better ties.

Edited July 15, 2018 by quandow
punctuation

[mtls2005]

I guess getting Mexico to pay for the "fake" wall is off the table?

 

 

[bristolboy]

Well, it looks like he's trying to follow Kim Jong Un's playbook. First make things worse, and then make conciliatory noises. And that way the other guy will reward you. Except of course, in this case, the other guy isn't Trump, but someone knowledgeable and not easily played.

[klauskunkel]

22 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Pompeo meets next Mexican president, says Trump wants better ties

Trump wants to have his taco and eat it, too

[Redline]

6 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

Everybody wants to criticize a USA president that actually has balls. So many of us are sick of people that dont take responsibility for their actions but demand rights. Central Americans need to fight for justice & equity in their own countries, China has sucked up the business that these countries could of had, but they all want to be Venezuela, The only shining light is Colombia. Trump is hated by the bleeding hearts, soft cocks, & apologists, so he must be doing something right.

He’s a baby ? that complains all of the time an has accomplished nothing.  He thinks dividing people will accomplish something, but it never has.  Time to grow up

[Redline]

2 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I guess getting Mexico to pay for the "fake" wall is off the table?

 

 

And most of his daughter’s goods made in China and other countries ?

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, Redline said:

...
 Time to grow up

He can't and doesn't want to anyway. The only hope is to get him OUT of there.