Forget “the special relationship” with the United Kingdom, the cultural affinity with Canada, or the strong bonds with France (the first country to recognize the 13 colonies as a separate nation), Mexico is now the closest ally of the United States – or so says Vice President Joe Biden.
“There is no relationship we value more,” Biden said during a meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto last week that focused largely on increasing the flow of educational exchange students between the two nations.
The smiles and handshakes only served to gloss over many realities of the often fractious, economically lopsided relationship. Neither of the two referred publicly to the recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Peña Nieto before he became president. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a trip to the United States in response to similar revelations in her country, while Mexico’s leader seemed satisfied with a private confirmation from President Barack Obama that the matter would be fully investigated.
A tit-for-tat may have been that for once the war on drug trafficking was not included in the (public) conversation during Biden’s visit, possibly at the behest of Peña Nieto who has carefully tried to reduce media attention on the issue since he assumed office.
And in what was surely music to Pena Nieto’s ears, Biden said he was “impressed by proposals” to open up state-owned oil monopoly to private investment and promised “no interference” in the process from the United States. (In an almost simultaneous announcement, surveys revealed that a large majority of the Mexican population are against foreign participation in Mexico’s energy sector.)
Biden also stressed his commitment to the immigration reform bill working its slow way through Congress. The legislation could give legal status to some six million Mexicans working without papers in the United States and put them on the path to citizenship.