Pubdate: Fri, 16 Feb 2001
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: George E. Condon, Jr., Copley News Service

BUSH'S GOAL: NEW KINSHIP WITH MEXICO

WASHINGTON -- Proclaiming hemispheric solidarity and pledging to work hard 
at building a new relationship with the United States' neighbor to the 
south, President Bush leaves this morning for a summit with Mexican 
President Vicente Fox.

The 71/2-hour visit will be Bush's first venture to a foreign country since 
he took office last month and, despite the intended informality of the 
setting, he faces an agenda of issues long resistant to diplomatic resolution.

Along with the familiar U.S.-Mexican issues of drugs, immigration and 
trade, the California power crisis has pushed the matter of energy policy 
onto the agenda. But officials in both countries have warned in advance of 
Bush's arrival that Mexico offers no quick solution to the threats of 
rolling blackouts that haunt California daily.

In fact, U.S. officials point out, Mexico faces its own impending energy 
shortages and is in dire need of massive outside investments.

During his presidential campaign, Bush spoke often of a future hemispheric 
power grid stretching from the Yucatan to the Yukon. But the president made 
no mention of power in a preview of the trip he offered during a speech at 
the State Department yesterday.

"Some look south and see problems," he said. "Not me. I look south and see 
opportunities and potential."

That, he said, was the message he will carry to Fox's sprawling ranch in 
San Cristobal, near Leon in Guanajuato state. The decision to accept Fox's 
invitation was meant to show American delight at the blossoming of 
democracy symbolized by Fox's election last year as the first opposition 
president in 71 years.

"The door is open to a closer partnership with the United States," Bush 
said. "But nothing about this new relationship is inevitable. Only through 
hard work will we get it right."

The president said he wants to get Fox's views "on expanding trade 
throughout the hemisphere, on safe and orderly migration, on expanding 
educational opportunity for all our children, and what we can do together 
to fight drug trafficking and other types of organized crime."

For perhaps the first time since 1909, when William Howard Taft became the 
first U.S. president to go to Mexico to meet his counterpart, the agenda 
has been largely set by the Mexicans.

"We're not used to that," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American 
Dialogue, a policy forum on hemispheric affairs.

The unusual assertiveness of the Mexicans, analysts agree, is attributable 
to several factors: Bush's newness in office, the lack of a new "Mexico 
team" in the State Department or the National Security Council, Fox's 
heightened moral stature because of his democratic underpinnings, and, 
remarkably, Mexico's new status as the No. 2 trading partner to the United 
States.

"The Bush administration is playing catch-up. They're trying to get settled 
in and work on an agenda," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the 
Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The 
Fox administration had a very definite head start on this meeting's 
preparations."

Although also new to office, Fox has had more time to prepare, giving the 
Mexican government an advantage in pushing for more substance in the 
summit. The U.S. team is willing to talk about irritants in the 
relationship, but is putting more stress on the personal aspects of the 
meeting.

"Establishing the relationship is the most important thing," said a senior 
administration official yesterday. Over protests from reporters, she said 
she could not be identified by name.

"This is an effort for the two presidents to establish a really good 
relationship so that when there are difficult issues on the agenda they 
feel they can talk about them," the official added.

But she spoke about Bush's optimism heading into the talks. "The president 
has a very clear sense that we have a historic opportunity here to turn a 
new page in U.S.-Mexican relations," she said.

Those relations are generally considered to be their warmest in decades.

"There is a feeling that this is a magical moment when all of the 
constraints that have crippled this relationship and made it less than a 
full-fledged alliance may lift," said M. Delal Baer, a Mexico expert at the 
center.

Thomas "Mack" McLarty, who was President Clinton's special envoy for Latin 
America, said Fox is the first Mexican president to be viewed as a 
potential partner with a U.S. president.

"The relationship between the United States and Mexico has never been more 
equitable than it is today," McLarty said.

Bush enjoys good ties in Mexico that he formed as governor of Texas.

But he is unlikely to give Fox all he wants. Bush particularly stops short 
of embracing Fox's call for free movement of people across the border.

Bush also has yet to endorse Fox's objections to the annual process 
mandated by Congress in which the United States has to "certify" Mexico's 
anti-drug efforts.

Bush also wants to hear Fox explain his views on Cuba, with many of Bush's 
advisers withholding judgment until they see what Fox does in an upcoming 
annual human rights vote by the United Nations in Geneva.

But Bush has scored points in Mexico by embracing a decision last week 
ordering the United States, as part of the North American Free Trade 
Agreement, to permit Mexican trucks north of the border.

"What the Bush administration has done so far is trucking and this trip, 
and that's about all they can do so early," said Jorge Dominguez, a Harvard 
professor.

That -- coupled with Fox's democratic credentials -- contributes to the 
feelings of good will surrounding the summit.

"President Fox enjoys enormous prestige in the United States," Baer said. 
"That counts for a lot. It is partially responsible for the honeymoon and 
the festive spirit that is going to surround this meeting. This is going to 
be something of a love fest."
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