After summit snub, Biden meets Mexican president

The White House meeting between President Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was intended to help cement a critical relationship.

WASHINGTON — A month after snubbing President Biden by refusing to attend a summit meant to show American leadership, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has joined Biden at the White House on Tuesday to consolidate a relationship with the United States States must slow mass migration and strengthen economic ties.

The notoriety of the mere presence of M López Obrador alongside Mr. Biden underscored how complicated an already complex relationship between the United States and Mexico has become. Mr. López Obrador skipped Mr. Biden's Summit of the Americas last month after criticizing the United States for not inviting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. He also challenged the United States on energy policies, the fight against drugs and the prosecution of Julian Assange.

The two leaders sought to reaffirm a partnership whose they both agreed there was a need to address global inflation amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, migration and the rise in fentanyl trafficking. But Mr. López Obrador made it clear that there were still tensions between the men.

The Mexican president, who rarely passes up the opportunity to push the Biden administration, at one point mentioned how Americans living along the border crossed into Mexico for gas at lower prices amid runaway inflation.

"Despite our differences and also despite our grievances which are not really easy to forget with time or with good wishes", said Mr. López Obrador, many times "we were able to coincide and we were able to work together as good friends and true allies. ”

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In an approximately 30-minute response to Mr. Biden's brief opening remarks, Mr. López Obrador sometimes appeared to give a history lecture, rather than a political framework, citing the partnership between the two countries under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies.

"We had circumstances that were quite similar to our current circumstances," he said. "And from these policies we should learn good lessons."

Mr López Obrador also referred to one of Mr. Biden's biggest political vulnerabilities: high gas prices.After telling Mr. Biden that he hoped "Congress approves or passes" the proposals to lower gas prices , Mr. Biden retorted, "It's been down for 30 days straight".

The Mexican president also noted that Americans were going through ent the border to buy gasoline, claiming it was a dollar cheaper. He did not note that it costs less in Mexico because the government subsidizes domestic gas prices with the money it makes from the crude oil it produces.

Mr. Biden aides insist the relationship between the two leaders is productive. Although it did not attend Mr. Biden's summit in June, Mexico backed a statement drafted at the meeting that pledged to cooperate on expanding legal avenues for foreign workers, to invest in border protection, to combat smuggling networks and to combat record illegal migration.

"We consider Mexico an equal partner," said Mr. Biden on Tuesday in remarks lasting just under 10 minutes, noting the need to strengthen the economy and address migration north “as a shared hemispheric challenge.”

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Biden has emphasized the need to work with Mexico and Central American countries to address the root causes of migration and deter the surge in illegal migration border crossings – a humanitarian crisis that challenged his White House. s recent years, the majority of migrants crossing the border have been Mexicans, a change from most Obama and Trump administrations when Central Ame...