Mexican president cancels Washington trip after Trump tweet

Mexico’s president Enrique Pena Nieto addresses a press conference at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City on January 23, 2017. Marco Ugarte / AP Photo

MEXICO CITY // Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday cancelled a visit to the White House next week, hours after the US president with Donald Trump tweeted that their meeting should be scrapped if Mexico would not pay for a border wall.

Mr Pena Nieto’s message on Twitter ended days of uncertainty about how he would respond to Mr Trump’s aggressive stance toward the country, and illustrated the challenges world leaders are likely to face in dealing with new US leader’s voluble, Twitter-based diplomacy.

It also signalled a remarkable souring of relations between the US and its immediate southern neighbour, one of America’s largest trading partners and a country with which it shares a nearly 2,000-mile border.

“This morning we have informed the White House I will not attend the working meeting planned for next Tuesday,” Mr Pena Nieto tweeted.

“Mexico reaffirms its willingness to work with the United States to reach agreements that benefit both nations,” he added.

In response, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said: “We’ll look for a date to schedule something in the future. We will keep the lines of communication open.”

Mr Trump later said his meeting with Mr Pena Nieto would have been “fruitless” if Mexico was not willing to pay for the border wall.

“The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” he told Republican legislators at a retreat in Philadelphia.

“Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice.”

On Thursday morning Mr Trump had tweeted that “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting” in Washington D.C.

Mr Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order for the building of a US-Mexico border wall and has vowed to make Mexico pay for it. Mexico opposes the wall and has repeatedly said it will not pay.

* Associated Press