Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Sheinbaum says Trump meeting is postponed, not canceled after G7 exit

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday said that her planned meeting with Donald Trump would take place at a later date after the U.S. president decided to leave the G7 Summit in  Canada earlier than expected to return to Washington D.C. to attend to the conflict between Israel and Iran.

“The situation in the Middle East is very tense,” Sheinbaum told reporters outside her hotel in Calgary, Alberta.

“[Trump] made the decision to leave due to the situation in the Middle East and we’ll continue here tomorrow,” she said, noting that she has meetings scheduled with the prime ministers of Canada and India and with European Union leaders.

Sheinbaum said that her meeting with Trump “is postponed,” while Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez told reporters on Tuesday that in-person talks between the two leaders would take place “at another time.”

Asked whether the U.S. president’s decision to leave the G7 Summit on Monday was “understandable,” Sheinbaum only responded that she and her government were praying for peace and praying that the already “very serious” conflict between Israel and Iran wouldn’t worsen.

The postponement of her meeting with Trump means that she won’t have the immediate opportunity to personally present Mexico’s case against U.S. tariffs on Mexican steel, aluminum and cars.

Sheinbaum had said that trade as well as security and migration were to be the top issues for discussion in her meeting with Trump.

What is President Sheinbaum’s agenda at the G7?

Rodríguez stressed on Tuesday morning that there is already “good communication” between the Mexican and U.S. governments, saying that “the possibilities of daily dialogue” are open.

She also noted that Sheinbaum is not the only leader who missed out on the opportunity to have a bilateral meeting with Trump at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

The prime ministers of Japan and Australia, and the president of Ukraine, didn’t get the opportunity either, Rodríguez said.

Sheinbaum’s meeting with Carney 

Sheinbaum’s most important bilateral meeting on Tuesday could very well be that with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Mexico and Canada are close trade partners and the two nations’ leaders share the situation of having to deal with an unpredictable president in a country that is both their neighbor and their largest trading partner.

Asked on Monday whether the USMCA free trade pact which is scheduled for review in 2026 would be a focus of her discussions with Carney, Sheinbaum responded:

“Yes, we’ll talk about the Mexico-Canada relationship. In the call we had he suggested that we strengthen our economic relations.”

As for her meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, Sheinbaum said that the bilateral talks will focus on “strengthening our relations in all senses economic, cultural, educational.”

With reports from El Universal, La Jornada and Reforma

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