Mexico City, January 16 - The Mexican Foreign Minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, and the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, agreed to call a Ministerial Security Meeting to be held in Washington next February.
"This high-level meeting will provide an opportunity to assess progress made and clearly define future collaborations," states a joint communiqué from both countries on a call held Thursday between the two officials.
The two heads reaffirmed the importance of collaboration between the two nations, based on mutual respect for sovereignty, and agreed that more needs to be done to face shared threats.
They recognized that "despite progress made, significant challenges remain."
They agreed that the bilateral Security Implementation Group, whose next meeting is scheduled for January 23, must continue generating tangible actions to strengthen cooperation with meaningful results.
This, it adds, "is to counter the cartels and stop the trafficking of fentanyl and weapons at the shared border."
They also agreed to follow up on bilateral initiatives to promote information exchange in cross-border security initiatives.
The two nations reached a security cooperation understanding last September, based on four fundamental principles: unconditional respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, shared responsibility, mutual trust, and coordinated collaboration without subordination.
Last Monday, Sheinbaum and Trump held a phone dialogue after which the dignitary dismissed a military action by Washington in this country, a threat launched by the tycoon referring in previous days that he would start attacks on the ground against drug cartels.
Trump has said on several occasions that the mentioned criminal organizations supposedly "govern" this Latin American nation and has proposed apparent "support" with military forces to Mexico to combat organized crime.
Sheinbaum has been clear in rejecting such possibility and stressing that only her own personnel will operate in the territory of this nation.
The national security strategy implemented by the Government of the dignitary shows tangible results: 40,735 arrested for high-impact crimes and 318 tons of drugs and 21 thousand weapons confiscated from October 2024 until last December.
These operations allowed a 40 percent decrease in the daily average of intentional homicides in this country during the first 15 months of the current administration, according to data from the National Public Security System.
