- Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met at the State Department to discuss priority bilateral issues. They agreed that the relationship between the countries continues to strengthen and produce results.
Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken today in Washington D.C. to discuss priority bilateral issues, including migration, security, and arms and drug trafficking.
After the meeting, Foreign Secretary Bárcena said, "The relationship between Mexico and the United States is very positive at this time. We have established effective channels for dialogue and have engaged in highly productive conversations that are yielding results," as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has acknowledged.
"We have worked on migration, fentanyl, security, arms trafficking, and now on shared economic prosperity that we are building together because we believe North America is the world’s most dynamic region," emphasized Secretary Bárcena.
Regarding migration, Secretary Bárcena said, "We have reduced the numbers significantly, making safe and orderly migration more achievable than ever [...] We are working hard with the governments of the region to ensure that migration is regular. We are exploring many pathways, for example, labor mobility [...] because in the end, people in human mobility are looking for opportunities and jobs."
On fentanyl trafficking, the Foreign Secretary said, "We have made a lot of progress thanks to the global coalition that has been created [...] We are working very hard to disrupt the fentanyl precursor supply chain and are making a lot of progress in Mexico to prevent it from reaching the United States."
Secretary Blinken declared, "Mexico and the United States working together is what achieves results [...] From our perspective, the partnership has never been better, has never been stronger, has never produced better results for both Mexicans and Americans on the many issues that unite us."
"No other two countries have such intertwined destinies or such an impact on each other's lives as our countries. That's why, when we have problems, we work on them together,” he continued.
He acknowledged the joint efforts on migration. "Thanks to the big steps that Mexico has taken, and the strong leadership of both President Biden and President López Obrador, we’ve seen, at least at this moment, a dramatic decrease in the number of irregular migrants trying to cross the border [...] We are committed to working together to ensure migration that is orderly, safe and humane," the Secretary said.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Foreign Secretary Bárcena signed the State Department Guest Book.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry, on behalf of the government, reaffirms its commitment to continue strengthening the bilateral relationship with the U.S. Government to address shared challenges such as irregular migration and arms and drug trafficking.
