President Enrique Peña Nieto phones Trump to start ‘new chapter’ in U.S.-Mexico relations

MEXICO CITY—President Enrique Peña Nieto held a press conference on Wednesday evening to address Donald Trump’s victory and tell reporters he called the U.S. president-elect to congratulate him and his family on the win. “It was a cordial, friendly and respectful conversation,” Peña Nieto said.

“We both agreed that we must work towards a relationship of trust, a shared future, because our countries are very important to each other,” the Mexican president said. “When Mexico does well, the U.S. also does well.”

Peña Nieto said his administration will begin working with Trump’s transition team to create a new work agenda focused on “security, cooperation, and prosperity.”

“We agreed to meet, preferably during the transition period, to define with all clarity the course that the relationship between both countries must take,” he stressed.

“A new chapter has started in the relationship between Mexico and the United States. It will imply change, new challenges and we should also say: a new opportunity,” Peña Nieto said with optimism.

“We Mexicans will begin this new phase with confidence and determination but above all, in unity.”

He said Mexicans living on both sides of the border will “keep working with the responsibility and commitment that has always characterized us.”

“With the American society, we have inseparable ties. The best example is the Mexican community that lives in the United States. They are families that contribute every day to the development of both nations.” — Enrique Peña Nieto

The Mexican president seemed to echo the tone of Trump’s conciliatory victory speech, marking a pivot after weeks of exchanging fire over his earlier meeting with the then-candidate and the details of what the two men discussed about paying for the border wall.

Peña Nieto vowed that his government would continue to fight “in soul and body” for the rights of Mexicans all over the world.

“Yesterday, during his victory speech, President-elect Donald Trump expressed his deposition to work with everyone, all people and all nations,” the Mexican president said. “Mexico shares this vision.”