WASHINGTON: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic and the latter’s past disparaging remarks about his country’s southern neighbour.

Speaking after an Oval Office meeting, Trump hailed the US-Mexico relationship as “outstanding”, and Lopez Obrador — a left-wing populist — adopted a conciliatory tone.

“The relationship between the United States and Mexico has never been closer than it is right now,” said Trump, who ran for president on a pledge to build a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out “rapists” and “criminals”. “Each of us was elected on the pledge to fight corruption, return power to the people and put the interests of our countries first,” Trump told Lopez Obrador. “I do that and you do that.” Lopez Obrador thanked Trump for his “understanding” and told his US counterpart: “You have not tried to treat us as a colony.

“On the contrary, you have honoured our condition as an independent nation. That’s why I’m here: to express to the people of the United States that their president has behaved with us with kindness and respect.” The Mexican leader also thanked Trump for helping on trade and with medical equipment to treat coronavirus patients.

Officially, the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Lopez Obrador was to celebrate the launch of the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade deal, a modified successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump had branded a killer of working-class US jobs.

But their bonhomie did not convince Trump’s Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.

“Trump launched his 2016 campaign by calling Mexicans rapists. He’s spread racism against our Latino community ever since,” Biden tweeted.

He called for a return of “dignity and humanity” to the US immigration system.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2020