Mexico's foreign minister to meet U.N. chief in New York

MEXICO CITY, 02 Feb. - (ANA) - Mexico's foreign minister travels to New York on Thursday to meet U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres just days after talks with Trump administration officials were undone by a dispute over U.S. plans to build a border wall.

The government said in a statement Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray would meet Guterres, as well as members of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas.

Videgaray's talks with Guterres would focus on Mexico's priorities at the United Nations, while economic and social issues were on the agenda for the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas meetings, the statement said.

Last week Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo had to break off meetings in Washington with Trump advisers after a Twitter spat broke out between Mexico's president and U.S. President Donald Trump over the southern border wall.

While Videgaray and Guajardo were in meetings, Trump tweeted that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto should cancel a planned visit if he was not prepared to pay for the wall that the former real estate tycoon wants to keep out illegal immigrants.

Pena Nieto duly canceled the planned visit to talk to Trump, which was meant to take place this week.

The two leaders on Friday talked by phone to try and smooth over the incident, though tensions flared again on Wednesday after media reports suggested that Trump had threatened to send U.S. troops to Mexico to battle its powerful drug lords.

Mexico's government said the reports were wrong.

Luis Almagro, head of the Washington-based Organization of American States, talked to Videgaray by phone on Wednesday about the Mexico-U.S. relationship, the OAS said in a statement.

Almagro voiced his concern and solidarity with Mexico about the possible effects of Trump's wall and his measures against immigrants, the regional diplomatic bloc said. - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/ 02 February 2017 - - -