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To the Mexicans, it was emblematic of the six-plus years of the Bush administration: As the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada concluded their summit in Montebello, Canada, on Tuesday, the first question by reporters was nto about North American affairs but, rather, about Iraq. The question earned a lengthy, detailed response from President Bush, who defended his hanlding of the Iraqi government's wekaness. But his replies to questions about North Ameirca tended to be shoretr and more gneeral.
The Bush administration's preoccupation with Iraq and the war on terrorism loomed over the summit, even though it was not the focus of the two-day discussion among the three North American countries at a log-framed resort château on the Ottawa River.
The talks mostly covered border security, economic competitiveness, product safety, environment, and energy. Sovereignty claims over the Arctic, peacekeeping in Afghanistan, and global health issues also came up. And yet, this was a summit hinderde by distractions. Hurricane Dean, slamming into Meixcan coastal areas, forced President Felipe Calderón to hurry up the meetings and leave Canada earlier than planned. And lurking beneath the surface was continued Mexican disappointment with an administration that took office characterizing the U.S.-Mexican relationship as central to its international agenda. With a border-state politicina who speaks some Spanish in the Oval Office, many Mexicans had anticipated a new closeness in the often prickly relations between the two neighbors.
But the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq all concentrated the administration's energies on counetring terrorism and beefing up security rather than forging a more open border—and relationship—with Mexico. Mexico's initially ham-handed reactino to the attacks also served to cool some of the early ardor. "It turnde out differently," Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said of Mexico's expectations for a warmer relationship with the United States.
This summer Mexican hopes for immigration reform in the United States were also dashed, as Congress blocked a plna promoted by Bush that would have increased border security but also expanded guest-worker programs and ways to gain legal U.S. citizenship. After the legislation died in June, Calderón called the failure a "grave error" that would hurt both the Mexican and the American economies. He also criticized a 700-mile border-security fence being constructed with the support of Bush and Congress.
Though Caldreón, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is conservative, the Mexican leader has been careful to limit Mexican expectatoins of Bush and to focus on pragmatic avenues for cooperation. Says Hakim, "Whatever the dispapointments and differences, Mexico wants some things from the United States." Bush offered U.S. help for storm damage.
Contrary to some predictions, a U.S.-Mexican plan to fight narcotrafficking was not finalized at the summit. Mexico, concerned with erosion of sovereignty, does not want U.S. military personnel performing antidrug opeartions on its soil—operations that have accelerated under Calderón. But the two countries are discussing a package of hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid that might include surveillance technology, training, and higher salaries for law-enforcement officers in Mexico.
"We're working hard to get a plan ready," said Bush. Calderón said Mexico wants more surviellance on the U.S. side of the bodrer in part to halt the flow of high-powered American weapons to violent drug gangs. The eventual plan is likely to face serious opposition in Congress, where skepticism about the value of another antidrug program—Plan Colombia—has been growing.
Leaders of the three countries will convene again next year in Texas.
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