President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya traveled to Mexico on August 10 to advance U.S.-Mexico cooperation across our bilateral agenda.  NSC Senior Director Juan Gonzalez, National Security Advisor to the Vice President Ambassador Nancy McEldowney, Ambassador Julissa Reynoso, State Department Senior Western Hemisphere Bureau Official Ricardo Zuniga, and Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary David Shahoulian also traveled with the delegation.    

National Security Advisor Sullivan and his team met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, Attorney General Gertz, and Secretary of Finance Ramirez de la O, as well as other senior Mexican government representatives. The visit followed a phone call between Vice President Kamala Harris and President López Obrador on August 9, and provided an opportunity to discuss economic and security priorities, such as competitiveness, our shared border, COVID-19 recovery, security cooperation, and development in southern Mexico and Central America.

During the visit, U.S. and Mexican officials reaffirmed the strategic relationship between our two countries. Given the strong economic ties binding us, the delegations advanced preparations for the upcoming relaunch of the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED), which will be held in Washington on September 9. They discussed opportunities to better integrate our economies to make them more resilient, including the potential to strengthen and pivot supply chains in alignment with our domestic efforts to build back better. National Security Advisor Sullivan also affirmed our cooperation on health security, including assessing the current COVID-19 situation on the ground in both countries and collaborating to manage the pandemic together.

Officials underscored the importance of fostering development in southern Mexico and Central America to address the root causes of irregular migration, and will work toward deeper collaboration within the Root Causes Strategy. They discussed current irregular migration flows and committed to jointly managing safe, orderly migration that respects human rights. The National Security Advisor and Mexican leaders also affirmed their commitment to a regional approach to migration. In addition, Mexican and U.S. officials spoke about plans for strategic security cooperation, a central pillar of our relationship. They discussed next steps toward the commitment made during Vice President Harris’ visit in June to hold a High-Level Security Dialogue with Mexico.

During his visit, National Security Advisor Sullivan stressed that the United States and Mexico share democratic values and joint priorities, including improving global health, security, and economic prosperity for all.

Additional representatives of the Government of Mexico included National Migration Institute Commissioner Francisco Garduno, Mexican Army Major General and Southern Border Coordinator General Vicente Hernandez,  Army Lieutenant General and Commander of Military Operations General Guillermo Briseno, Mexican Navy Rear Admiral and Undersecretary for Administration Vice-Admiral Benito Galeana, Undersecretary of Public Security Ricardo Mejia, and Chief of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations North America Unit Roberto Velasco.

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