Vaccine sharing with Mexico: AMLO could request US cooperation from Biden for supply of COVID-19 antigen

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is expected to ask his counterpart Joe Biden to consider sharing a portion of the US coronavirus vaccine supply with the Latin American country in a virtual meeting on Monday, officials said Americans and Mexicans.

Biden is open to discussing the matter as part of a cooperative effort in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but will keep as his “priority number one “the need to vaccinate as many Americans as possible first,” a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

López Obrador was one of the leaders of developing economies who he made his voice heard by putting pressure on the great powers to improve access to vaccines for the poorest nations.

“We hope this will happen”the White House official said when asked if López Obrador was likely to submit a vaccine-sharing request when leaders celebrate their first Bilateral “reunion” since Biden’s inauguration in January.

The Mexican official said López Obrador would request a loan of US vaccine supplies, which would beá reimbursed when organic products for which Mexico has signed contracts are delivered later in the year.

López Obrador’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Mexican media Proceso, the president previously raised the issue with Biden on a January appeal shortly after he was sworn in.

Mexico had a strained relationship with the predecessor of Biden, Donald Trump, and López Obrador forged an alliance with the former Republican president as they worked to curb migration from Central America.

Biden rescinded the strict immigration policies of his predecessor, which, among other things, forced thousands of people to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings to begin.

The White House official made it clear that, As Biden focuses on vaccinating Americans, Washington recognizes the need to forge a strategy to help its neighbors.

“Once the pandemic is under control, economic recovery will be an issue where we will eventually have to open our borders,” he said. “But we cannot open our borders if Canada and Mexico have not approached the epidemic in the same way. For this reason, collaboration with Mexico is a top priority ”.

COOPERATION AND RESPECT

Mexico’s immunization program has been delayed due to the slow pace of theThe shipments, despite agreements with international manufacturers were aimed at buying doses for the 126 million inhabitants of the country.

Due to the delay in deliveries from Pfizer, Mexico rushed to fill this gap and secure initial shipments of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the Chinese biopharmaceutical Sinovac Biotech.

The government provided a first dose to a little more 1.8 million people, or 1.4% of the population. Mexico has recorded more than 185,000 deaths from COVID-19 and more than two million coronavirus infections.

Another point of tension between the United States and Mexico has been a drug trafficking investigation against former Mexican Secretary of Defense Salvador Cienfuegos. His October arrest on US soil angered the Mexican government, which took steps to restrict US drug control operations in its territory in retaliation.

When asked if Mexico has reduced Regarding security cooperation, the White House official replied, “What we have found is that our collaboration and communication with Mexican law enforcement continues.”

López Obrador also asked The United States to stay out of Mexican energy policy, reflecting the idea that the new American administration will seek to defend the interests of investors as that Mexico is moving forward to change the rules in favor of state-owned oil and power companies.

Despite the opinion of some investors that the policy change could violate the North American trade agreement, TMEC, the White House official said that “it is not clear whether there has been a violation “of the treaty and insisted that any difference could be resolved” in a context of respect “.

With information from REUTERS

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