Off the wire
• Washington's National Zoo kicks off events to send off Giant Panda Bao Bao  • Tokyo stocks retreat in morning as exporters drop on yen's rise  • Venezuela pulls plug on CNN in Spanish  • Urgent: Malaysia arrests another suspect in connection with the death of DPRK man  • Xinhua China news advisory -- Feb. 16  • China treasury bond futures open mixed Thursday  • China Hushen 300 index futures open higher Thursday  • Designated APA hotel starts removing controversial books: AWG organizer  • Chinese shares open lower Thursday  • Australian organized crime figure found dead in luxury car  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. diplomatic, homeland security chiefs to visit Mexico

Xinhua, February 16, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly will make a working visit to Mexico on Feb. 23, aimed at building "constructive ties" between two sides, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The two U.S. envoys "will meet with various federal government officials," the ministry said, adding it would release more details of the agenda in coming days.

The meetings came after the telephone conversation on Jan. 27 between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto.

The telephone call took place ahead of a scheduled meeting between the two heads of state. Pena Nieto canceled it after Trump tweeted there was no point in holding the encounter if Mexico was not prepared to pay for a proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump tweeted. ' Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray went to Washington after the call, and met with Tillerson and Kelly so as "to continue to work in favor of a respectful, close and constructive relationship between the two countries," the ministry said.

Bilateral ties have been tense since Trump took office in January, who immediately signed an executive order calling for a border wall to stem illegal immigration and cross-border crime.

He urged to levy the tax on Mexican goods entering the United States to help pay for the project, which could cost tens of billions of dollars.

Trump also demanded the renegotiation of a two-decade-old free trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada. Endi