U.S. President Barack Obama met with Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto ahead of the countries' bilateral High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) meeting this week.

While Peña Nieto and Obama discussed economic topics, the two presidents spoke about immigration and the renewed diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Obama and Peña Nieto spoke privately about the missing 43 Mexican students, and Obama acknowledged that Peña Nieto described reform programs aimed to address the violence in the country.

"Our commitment is to be a friend and supporter of Mexico in its efforts to eliminate the scourge of violence and the drug cartels that are responsible for so much tragedy inside of Mexico," said Obama. "And we want to be a good partner in that process, recognizing that ultimately it will be up to Mexico and its law enforcement to carry out the decisions that need to be made."

Peña Nieto did not directly comment on the missing students but commented on Mexico's challenge to combat organized crime. He thanked Obama for working with Mexico to improve security and the exchange of information and logistics.

Immigration was addressed, and Obama noted the U.S. efforts aimed to fix the broken immigration system and strengthening the U.S.-Mexico border. Obama, however, said more work has to be accomplished with the leaders of Central American countries.

"I very much appreciate Mexico's efforts in addressing the unaccompanied children who we saw spiking during the summer. In part because of strong efforts by Mexico, including at its southern border, we've seen those numbers reduced back to much more manageable levels. But one of the things that we both agreed on is our continued need to work with Central American governments so that we can address some of the social and economic challenges there that led to that spike in unaccompanied children," said Obama.

In regards to the U.S. president's Nov. 20 immigration executive actions, Obama said he appreciated Mexico's commitment to enforce the actions. Obama said both countries will be "much more aggressive" on the border while ensuring families are not separated yet guarantee people enter "the system" legally.

Peña Nieto referred to Obama's immigration executive action as a "very intelligent and audacious decision" by the administration. He recognized that many affected by the immigration executive actions have originally arrived from different countries, but "a very big majority" are Mexican citizens. Peña Nieto said his government is willing to help Mexican citizens, who have lived in the U.S. before 2010, obtain documentation for eligible programs by Obama's executive actions. He added that Mexican citizens in the U.S. will be able to receive their birth certificates without traveling back to Mexico.

"They are going to be able to get this very important document," said Peña Nieto, originally in Spanish. "And, of course, another very important factor that we've discussed is for Mexico to be doing everything it can so that this measure will only be benefiting those people that are supposed to be there, and for it not to generate any misinformation or abuses, especially of the organized crime groups, groups that are doing human trafficking and that they will be encouraging the type of migration which is exactly the type we don't want to have."

On Cuba, Obama said he gave an advance notice to Peña Nieto about discussing human rights, democracy and political freedom in the island country at the upcoming Summit of the Americas. Peña Nieto said he has offered Mexico's involvement, if requested, in reestablishing relations between Cuba and the U.S.

Peña Nieto is in the U.S. to participate in the HLED, an annual meeting for the U.S. and Mexico to discuss economic and trade opportunities.

As Latin Post reported, a senior Obama administration official said the HLED meeting will further promote competitiveness and connectivity, foster economic growth, productivity and innovation and partner for regional and global leadership. For the meeting, an administration official said Obama's entire economic cabinet will be in attendance, which should be a "huge indication" of the administration's focus on improving economic relations with Mexico.

White House - Obama, Pena Nieto January 6, 2015 Remarks:

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

Related