Washington, Jan 28 (EFE).- The White House press secretary confirmed Friday that the president of the United States and his Mexican counterpart have agreed not to speak publicly about the funding of the wall that the former wishes to build along the border of the two countries.
Donald Trump and Enrique Peña Nieto “agreed not to discuss how it (the wall) will be paid for publicly, that they will continue to have those discussions privately”, Sean Spicer told reporters.
The two leaders spoke on telephone for about an hour to discuss the crisis that erupted between the two countries after Trump signed an executive order for the construction of the wall and said Mexico is “100 percent” paying for it.
The Mexican president canceled his upcoming trip to the US capital after the signing of the executive order by Trump, although the two expressed interest in continuing talks.
Following Friday’s telephone call, the presidential offices of both countries issued a joint statement on the contents of the conversation, although the texts differed on one point.
The statement issued by the Mexican government explained that both leaders had agreed not to discuss the funding of the border wall publicly.
However, that point was missing in the statement by the White House.
“We had a very good call. We are going to be working on a fair relationship,” Trump said about his conversation with Peña Nieto during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The US president said that “Mexico with the United States has outnegotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders” in reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed between US, Mexico and Canada, reiterating that he will renegotiate the trade deal.
“They’ve made us look foolish,” he added.