MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden will discuss economic integration, immigration, climate change and combating drug gangs later on Monday, Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
Ebrard was speaking at a news conference alongside Lopez Obrador after Biden’s arrival in Mexico City on Sunday evening for a North American leaders’ summit this week.
Lopez Obrador accompanied Biden in a limousine from the airport to his hotel and said the two during the journey touched on some of the issues they would discuss on Monday, including regional economic integration and migration.
Lopez Obrador is hosting Biden and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau between Monday and Wednesday for the first summit between the three since late 2021.
The North American leaders are expected to seek to give new impetus to strengthening economic ties, even as a major dispute grinds on over Mexico’s energy policies which has distracted from cooperation on other issues such as immigration.
The United States and Canada say their firms have been disadvantaged by Lopez Obrador’s campaign to give control of the market to his cash-strapped state energy companies.
Lopez Obrador, a combative leftist, says his drive is a matter of national sovereignty, arguing that past governments skewed the energy market to favor private interests.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
