Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs visit to D.C.

December 16, 2022

Institutional Context 

The North American Leaders' Summit (NALS), sometimes called the Three Amigos Summit in the popular press, is the trilateral summit between the Prime Minister of Canada, the President of Mexico, and the President of the United States. The summits were initially held as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), a continent-level dialogue between the three countries established in 2005, and continued after SPP became inactive in 2009.

There are no fixed dates for the summits and in some years a summit has not been held for varying reasons. During the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, no official summits were held. The leaders of the three countries continued to meet, however, at other events, such as the signing of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement during the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit. The most recent North American Leaders' Summit was hosted by US president Joe Biden on November 18, 2021 at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs visit to D.C.

Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, visited Washington D.C. on December 16th. He met with his American counterpart, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. One of the main topics of the meeting was the preparation for President Joseph Biden's next visit to Mexico, as well as the North American Leaders Summit, to be held in January, in Mexico.

Secretary Blinken and Minister Ebrard discussed progress on the bilateral cooperation agenda, including economic and trade issues and shared challenges in migration and security, particularly in the fight against arms and fentanyl trafficking. The bilateral meeting was attended by the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán; the Head of the North America Unite, Roberto Velasco Álvarez; and Head of the Office of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Daniel Millán Valencia.