Mexican President López Obrador say Biden will visit in January

Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador on Friday suggested President Biden will visit the country in early January.

López Obrador at a press conference indicated Biden will travel to the country on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 for a North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City which will include Canada.

The summit was previously slated for December, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated last month that plans were still in flux.

“We’re still working through plans for the next North Americans Leaders’ Summit and have no travel announcement to make at this time,” Jean-Pierre said on Oct. 18.

The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office declined The Hill’s request for comment.

The three countries have made it a tradition for their leaders to meet in person for the summit annually, although the summits did not occur during the Trump administration.

Biden hosted Trudeau and López Obrador for the most recent summit last November, which was held in Washington, D.C.

López Obrador has regularly slighted the U.S. in various policy areas during his tenure, and Mexico in recent months sparred with the U.S. on energy policy.

In June, López Obrador boycotted the Summit of the Americas, which was hosted in Los Angeles, over the Biden administration’s refusal to invite the leaders of Cuba and Nicaragua as well as representatives of the Maduro government in Venezuela, which the United States does not recognize.

But the Mexican president the following month visited the White House for a bilateral meeting with Biden amid tensions on other issues, including migration and fentanyl. 

Vice President Harris also met with him during the trip, and Harris traveled to Mexico during her first foreign trip as vice president.

—Updated at 8:13 p.m.