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U.S. top diplomat to visit Mexico for anti-drug effort

13 August 2011 01:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. Deputy State Secretary Bill Burns will visit Mexico next week to "advance the U.S.-Mexico strategic partnership," including the joint anti-drug efforts, said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The 3-day visit, which starts next Monday, is meant to build upon Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to the U.S. in March and the U.S.-Mexico Merida High-Level Consultative Group meeting co-chaired by U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton in April, said Nuland.

Under the Merida Initiative launched in Aug. 2007 by the two neighbors, which also involves the Central American nations in efforts to combat drug trafficking and organized crime in the region, the U.S. government had appropriated 1.4 billion dollars for Mexico as of November 2010, but only 351 million dollars had been spent in more than three years in the form of equipment and training.

During his visit to Mexico City, capital of Mexico, Burns will meet with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, other senior government officials, opinion leaders and journalists, Nuland said.

She said that the visit will focus on enhancing U.S.-Mexico cooperation on a wide range of issues, including joint efforts to build "strong, resilient communities and a secure, efficient 21st century border as well as economic prosperity, and regional cooperation."

Despite U.S. efforts to stop flows of cash and guns southward to Mexico, about 90 percent of the guns seized and traced in Mexico last year were initially sold in the United States, official U.S. statistics show.

During Calderon’s visit to the U.S. in March, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for Mexico’s efforts to combat drug smuggling, reiterating that the U.S. accepted its shared responsibility for the drug violence.