The Tenth North American Leaders’ Summit concluded in Mexico City on January 10, after two days of meetings between the presidents of Mexico, the US and Canada.
During the summit, the leaders of the three countries discussed some of the biggest challenges facing the region and pledged to work together to address climate change, promote regional economic integration and reinforce regional security.
At the end of the summit, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to deepen integration and boost cooperation.
President López Obrador, President Biden, and PM Trudeau discussed promoting social equity, clean energy, strengthening supply chains, trade agreements, and joining forces to address irregular migration and fight drug trafficking.
President López Obrador urged his US counterpart to commit funds to Central America and southern Mexico to boost development and curb migration from one of the poorest regions in the hemisphere, and to make it easier for migrants to get jobs in the US.
President Biden thanked Mexico for helping in curbing unregistered crossings at the border, as well as disrupting trafficking of chemicals used to make fentanyl, a deadly opioid blamed for the deaths of thousands of US citizens.
Meanwhile, President López Obrador promised PM Trudeau to address disagreements with Canadian electricity companies in Mexico due to its nationalist energy policies.
At the same, Biden promised to visit Canada in March for the first time as president.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the summit, the leaders said that they agreed to “fortify the region’s security, prosperity, sustainability and inclusiveness through commitments across six pillars: diversity, equity and inclusion; climate change and the environment; competitiveness; migration and development; health; and regional security.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion
The statement explained that the leaders committed to providing marginalized communities with opportunities for full, equitable, and meaningful participation in democracies and economies.
They vowed to protect civil rights, promote racial justice, expand protections for LGBTQI+ individuals and deliver more equitable outcomes to all.
They said that innovative and sustainable solutions will be promoted with Indigenous peoples that honor traditional knowledge, foster growth and boost job creation in the communities.
The three leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity, by aiming to improve financial and political support for their rights.
Climate change and the environment
The leaders recognized that rapid and coordinated actions must be taken to confront the climate crisis and respond to its consequences.
They committed to exploring standards to develop hydrogen as a regional source of clean energy.
They pledged to protect biodiversity, work toward ending deforestation, and do their part to conserve 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030, in partnership with Indigenous peoples.
Competitiveness
The presidents promised to deepen the regional capacity to attract high quality investments, boost innovation, and strengthen the resilience of economies, recognizing the benefits that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement brings.
They committed to forging stronger regional supply chains and promoting targeted investment in key industries of the future to boost regional competitiveness.
They pledged to work with the private sector, civil society, labor and academia across North America to foster high-tech entrepreneurship, promote small and medium-sized enterprises, and strengthen technical education, whilst promoting sustainable, inclusive jobs and developing the workforce to meet climate commitments.
Migration and development
The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to safe, orderly and humane migration under the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and other relevant multilateral frameworks.
They said the policies will strive to “help host communities and promote the integration of migrants and refugees; provide protection to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants; strengthen the asylum capacity in the region; expand regular migration and protection pathways; address the root causes and impacts of irregular migration and forced displacement; and collaborate to counteract xenophobia as well as discrimination against migrants and refugees.”
Health
The leaders committed to a trilateral health cooperation, which will focus on releasing an updated version of the North American Plan for Animal and Pandemic Influenza (NAPAPI) to improve prevention, preparedness, agility, and rapid response to health emergencies in North America.
Regional security
The presidents affirmed the three countries will focus on strategies to strengthen shared continental security against domestic, regional, and global threats, including cyber threats.
Their security cooperation will include actions to disrupt criminal actors and associated crimes across shared borders, including money laundering, child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and arms smuggling.
The promises made by the North American leaders seem admirable, but are contrary to some of their government policies. It is worth noting that the US government has failed to guarantee an integral woman’s right: the right to abortion, in the country. The US has been responsible for emitting a larger share than any country of the greenhouse gasses causing current climate change. The US government has played an active role in coups against democratically elected progressive governments and installing anti-people corrupt regimes in Latin America, thus forcing millions of people to migrate. It has also been consistently cutting public education and healthcare budgets, while its costly war on drugs has failed on several fronts.
At the same time, the Canadian government has been explicitly supporting US interventionist plans in the Americas, while attacking the rights of Indigenous peoples in its own country.
