President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said on Wednesday that he invited his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to visit Mexico at the end of September, although he did not give details on the issues to be discussed.
“We formulated an invitation for him to visit Mexico, and have a meeting. It is being proposed for the end of September, ” AMLO said at his morning press conference at the National Palace.
Celebrations for the 200 years of the independence of Mexico are planned at the end of September, and it is usual for AMLO to invite foreign leaders to this type of commemoration.
AMLO had a telephone conversation with US Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, who promised to send up to 8.5 million doses of Moderna and AstraZeneca anti-Covid vaccines to Mexico.
In addition, on Wednesday, a delegation from the White House visited Mexico City, led by Secretary of Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.
AMLO received Sullivan in his office for two hours, with whom he had a “broad conversation.”
“Yesterday’s meeting was also very profitable, very good for both countries. The call the day before yesterday with Vice President Kamala Harris, the same,” said AMLO.
He said that they addressed “how to strengthen North America, and all of America, in the face of Asia’s commercial growth,” and that there will be a high-level dialogue on the matter at an upcoming meeting in the United States.
Both governments are exploring a general agreement that includes economic cooperation, the migration crisis, the development of Central America, and the reopening of the common border, which has been closed to non-essential travel due tothe COVID-19 pandemic.
“The call is being made to open the border. They are in that tenor. They agree. However, this came from the increase in infections, and the Delta variant, and is being analyzed. But there is attention to normalize it as soon as possible,” he said.
Mexico accelerated the vaccination of municipalities in the north of the country in June to facilitate the reopening of the common border, closed to non-essential travel since March 2020, but no agreement has been reached in this regard due to the growth of infections of COVID-19 in both countries.
AMLO said once again that the relationship with President Biden is “very good,“ as he said with his predecessor, Donald Trump, whom he visited at the White House in July 2020.