Biden arrives in Mexico for talks on migrants, drugs
US President Joe Biden arrived in Mexico for talks on migration and drug smuggling, as well as a North American leaders' summit, after a politically charged stop at the border.
Biden will meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau one-on-one and also together in what is dubbed the "Three Amigos" summit.
He received a red-carpet welcome from Lopez Obrador, who then joined Biden in his armoured limousine for the journey from the airport.
While trade and environmental issues are also on the table, Biden has put a surge in irregular migration and dangerous drug smuggling front and centre of his trip, his first to Mexico as president.
On his way to Mexico City, he stopped for several hours in El Paso, Texas, a city at the heart of the troubled border.
In an indication of the political sensitivities, it was his first trip to the southern frontier since taking office.
Biden met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watching a demonstration of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as a customs sniffer dog.
He later got out of his motorcade to inspect a section of the tall fencing that snakes between El Paso and its twin city Juarez on the Mexican side.
"They need a lot of resources. We're going to get it for them," Biden told reporters after his visit to the customs post.
