Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and US President Donald Trump are expected to discuss the two countries’ relationship after meetings in Washington next week between top Mexican and US administration officials, Mexico’s foreign minister said.
In an radio interview with Enfoque Noticias, Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the two presidents would speak directly, possibly by telephone, after the bilateral meetings.
“I don’t doubt that one of the outcomes should be that there is a direct communication between our presidents in the following days or weeks,” he said.
Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are slated to meet with Trump aides, including White House chief-of-staff Reince Preibus, senior adviser Jared Kushner, senior counselor Stephen Bannon, national security adviser Michael Flynn, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and trade adviser Peter Navarro. The meetings are scheduled to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mexico’s former finance minister, Videgaray was recently appointed foreign minister and returned to the government months after he resigned for reportedly helping to arrange a visit to Mexico by Trump during the US presidential campaign.
Trump has vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and threatened to slap tariffs on goods made in Mexico by US companies and exported to the US. The Mexican peso has slumped around 15% since Trump won the election.
In late December, Trump met with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim after he repeatedly criticized him on the campaign trail. Neither Trump nor Slim publicly commented on what the two discussed at the dinner.