An address to her fellow G20 leaders in which she proposed “the biggest reforestation program in history.”
Bilateral meetings with world leaders including United States President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A “gathering” with the four other leaders of the MIKTA partnership.
President Claudia Sheinbaum had a busy day at the G20 Leaders Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, after taking two commercial flights to reach the world-famous city on Sunday.
Sheinbaum’s trip to Brazil to meet with the leaders of the world’s largest economies is her first international trip since she was sworn in as president on Oct. 1. Her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, did not attend any G20 summits during his six-year term, preferring to focus on domestic issues rather than international ones.
Sheinbaum, head of a Mexican delegation that also includes Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Energy Minister Luz Elena González Escobar, will not attend the second day of the G20 summit, as she will return to Mexico to preside over Mexican Revolution Day proceedings on Wednesday.
Sheinbaum on the world stage at the G20 Rio summit
“The proposal is to stop sowing war. Let’s sow peace and let’s sow life.”
With those words, Sheinbaum concluded her maiden address to G20 leaders, which she made during a session on “Social Inclusion and the Fight against Hunger and Poverty.”
The proposal she put to many of the world’s most powerful politicians was to establish “a fund that allocates 1% of the military expenditure of our countries to carry out the biggest reforestation program in history.”
Under the proposal, Sheinbaum said, around US $24 billion per year could be allocated to the program.
En el inicio de los trabajos del G20 Brasil 2024, resaltamos que el gasto en armas creció casi al triple que la economía mundial en tan solo dos años; en cambio, 700 millones de familias aún viven por debajo de la línea de la pobreza. pic.twitter.com/w0puHsSVVl
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) November 18, 2024
That money could employ 6 million tree planters, who “would reforest 15 million hectares, something like four times the area of Denmark,” she said.
“… With that we would help to mitigate global warming and restore social fabric, helping communities to come out of poverty,” Sheinbaum said.
Earlier in her address, the climate scientist-turned-politician highlighted the achievements of the Mexican government’s Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) reforestation/employment scheme.
“Every year we allocate $1.7 billion to support 439,000 families in Mexico and 40,000 in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. In six years, more than 1 million hectares have been reforested with the planting of 1.1 billion trees,” Sheinbaum said.
The planting of trees in that area is “equivalent to capturing 30 million tonnes of CO2 annually,” she said.
During her speech, Sheinbaum also said that it is “absurd” that global expenditure on weapons is increasing when 700 million people live in poverty.
“What’s happening in our world that in just two years, spending on weapons grew [at] almost triple [the rate] of the global economy?” she asked.
“… It’s absurd, nonsense, that there is more spending on weapons than to combat poverty or climate change,” Sheinbaum said.
She also said that she refused to believe that “we’re capable of creating artificial intelligence,” but “incapable of giving a hand to those left behind.”
‘All Mexican women arrived’ to a position of power
Speaking to a gathering of mainly men, Sheinbaum noted that she had “the great honor” of becoming Mexico’s first female president when she was sworn in almost seven weeks ago.
“I didn’t arrive alone,” she told her fellow leaders.
“All the female farmers, migrants, workers and professionals arrived. Our grandmothers, our daughters and our granddaughters arrived. All Mexican women arrived,” Sheinbaum said.
Among other remarks, the president highlighted the continuation of the Mexican governance model encapsulated by the slogan, “For the good of all, the poor first,” and told the summit that Mexico is among the least indebted nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
She also spoke about the record high foreign direct investment in Mexico and touted the construction of numerous infrastructure projects in Mexico in recent years, including new railroads and airports.
“There is democracy, freedom, plurality and the right to dissent [in Mexico],” Sheinbaum said.
“Security and justice institutions are being strengthened and peace is being built,” she said.
Migration, security and economy the focus of Sheinbaum’s discussion with Biden
Sheinbaum said on social media that she spoke with Biden about “the good relationship there is and which there must be between Mexico and the United States.”
She also said she spoke to the U.S. president about “the importance of working together” on matters related to migration, security and the economy.
It was the first — and likely last — time that Sheinbaum met face-to-face with Biden, who will be succeeded by Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
Trump, of course, was not at the G20 summit, but he — and his plans for his second term as U.S. president — were no doubt very present in the minds of world leaders, and in their discussions with their counterparts from the world’s major economies.
Sheinbaum will be the third Mexican president to steer Mexico’s relationship with the United States while Trump is in office. Enrique Peña Nieto was the first while López Obrador, who maintained a friendly relationship with Trump, was the second.
The White House on Monday said in a statement that Biden congratulated Sheinbaum on her election and inauguration as president during their meeting in Rio, and “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to building a prosperous North America with good paying jobs.”
“The two leaders underscored the importance of maintaining cooperation on migration, security and tackling the scourge of transnational criminal violence, and economic issues, building on the strong bilateral partnership between the United States and Mexico,” the statement said.
Trudeau, Xi and Macron also met with Sheinbaum in Rio
A steady flow of updates from Rio appeared on Sheinbaum’s social media accounts throughout Monday.
A meet and greet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the start of the day. A photo of the president speaking, with Biden, Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi also in the frame. Posts about the president’s bilateral meetings with Biden, Trudeau, Xi and Prime Minister of Vietnam Phạm Minh Chính.
Sheinbaum said she spoke to the Canadian prime minister about the “good result” of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for North America.
According to a statement from Trudeau’s office, the two leaders “spoke about the importance of economic security and underscored the mutually beneficial effects of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement,” or CUSMA, as the pact is known in Canada.
Sheinbaum’s meeting with Trudeau came at a time when two Canadian premiers, Doug Ford of Ontario and Danielle Smith of Alberta, are agitating for Canada to seek a bilateral agreement with the United States rather than the extension of a trilateral pact that includes Mexico.
The USMCA is up for review in 2026, and Trump has said he will have “a lot of fun” renegotiating it. Mexico’s trade and investment relationship with China is a central concern for the incoming U.S. president.
A social media post showed Sheinbaum shaking the hand of President Xi, but made no mention of Mexico’s trade relationship with China or Chinese investment in Mexico.
Con motivo de la Cumbre de Líderes del G20, conversamos con el presidente de China, Xi Jinping. Agradecí todo el apoyo para la recuperación de Acapulco mediante la producción y entrega de enseres domésticos. pic.twitter.com/oWhd755fLQ
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) November 18, 2024
Sheinbaum simply said that she thanked the Chinese leader for “all the support” China provided for the post Hurricane Otis recovery in Acapulco “through the production and delivery of domestic appliances.”
Vietnam is seen as a competitor of Mexico in the quest to attract new foreign investment, but no tension was on display in a photo that showed the Mexican and Vietnamese leaders sharing a warm moment, both smiling as if they had just heard a very good joke.
“We agreed to strengthen the cultural relationship,” Sheinbaum said on social media.
The Mexican president also met with French president Macron, and the two leaders agreed to cooperate on “water, health and infrastructure issues,” according to the federal government.
MIKTA and ‘Latin America united’
Sheinbaum, currently the only female leader of a G20 nation, also participated in the MIKTA Leaders Gathering along with the leaders of Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia.
Created in 2013, MIKTA is “a diverse and cross-regional grouping of democracies,” according to the government of Australia.
“MIKTA aims to bridge divides in the multilateral system and build consensus on complex and challenging issues, drawing on the diverse perspectives of its members and their shared interest in upholding international law and promoting the multilateral system.”
Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said on X that the Indonesian, Korean, Turkish and Australian leaders thanked Mexico for its “successful presidency” of MIKTA in 2024 and “praised the progress in strengthening multilateralism, placing women at the center of development efforts and deepening coordination between authorities … for development.”
Sheinbaum also engaged with the presidents of Chile and Colombia, who attended the G20 Summit despite their countries not being members of the group.
“Latin America united. We met with our friends, the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Chile, Gabriel Boric Font, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro Urrego at the G20 Leaders Summit,” Sheinbaum wrote in a social media post that included a photo of the four leaders.
América Latina unida. Nos encontramos con nuestros amigos los presidentes de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Chile, Gabriel Boric Font, y Colombia, Gustavo Petro Urrego en la Cumbre de Líderes del G20. pic.twitter.com/Kl6vChJhQT
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) November 18, 2024
Argentine President Javier Milei was at the G20 Summit, but is clearly not a part of that “united” front, being more aligned with Trump than the aforesaid quartet of Latin American leftists.
CDMX to Rio via Panama
“In line with one of the principles of her government, republican austerity,” Sheinbaum flew from Mexico City to Rio via Panama on a commercial airline, the president’s office said in a statement.
While far less folksy and considerably more urbane and taciturn than López Obrador, Sheinbaum is making a concerted effort to remain close to — or at least not too far removed from — “the people” AMLO so frequently extolled. Part of that effort is to fly commercial.
It’s not like she could hop onto a presidential jet, anyway (AMLO sold the erstwhile presidential plane to the government of Tajikistan) but she could have conceivably traveled to Brazil on a military aircraft.
Instead, like López Obrador, Sheinbaum lined up with the hoi polloi at Mexico City International Airport before taking her seat in the coach section of a Copa Airlines plane.
She met with Panamanian Foreign Affairs Minister at Tocumen International Airport in Panama city before continuing her journey to Rio.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
CORRECTION: The original version of this report quoted President Sheinbaum as saying that 100 billion trees have been planted in Mexico over the past six years. She did indeed say that, but in fact only 1.1 billion trees have been planted in the period. We have amended the report to reflect what Sheinbaum meant rather than what she said.
