Biden in Mexico for a Summit of North American Leaders

U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico for a North American leaders summit on Monday and Tuesday. 

The summit marks Biden’s first presidential trip to Mexico. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will host his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for talks in Mexico City from Monday through Wednesday, the first summit between the three since late 2021.

There is no shortage of topics for the leaders to tackle at the summit. 

There’s the major shift in border policy that came just days before the trip. There’s the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker in Mexico long sought by U.S. authorities. And there’s the border itself, which Biden visited for the first time as president when he made a stop in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday evening.

Key issues include border security, trade, economic development, and climate and energy. Energy policies are another big issue. So too is trade. 

For the U.S., major talking points are migration, drug trafficking, and the push for electric vehicles and manufacturing. Mexico is focused on economic integration for North America, supporting the poor in the Americas, and regional relationships that put all governments on equal footing. Canada is looking to expand on green initiatives.

North American leaders aim to give new impetus to strengthening economic ties at the meeting this week, even as a major dispute grinds on over Mexico’s energy policies which have distracted from cooperation on other issues like immigration.

Mexico remains mired in an energy dispute with the United States and Canada, who argue their firms have been disadvantaged by Lopez Obrador’s campaign to give control of the market to his cash-strapped state energy companies.

Biden’s Monday and Tuesday schedule at the North American Leaders’ Summit is packed: One-on-one discussions, trilateral meetings, working lunches, dinners, and, of course, photo opportunities.

Biden is the first U.S. president to visit Mexico since Barack Obama in 2014.