Obama to show solidarity on trip to Mexico

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's one-day visit Thursday to Mexico is to demonstrate solidarity with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, officials said.

Besides pledging to do more to halt the flow of weapons and drugs between the two countries, Obama will explore expanding U.S.-Mexican relationships beyond drugs and immigration to economic and environmental interests, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

This visit "is designed to send a very clear signal to our friends in Mexico City that we have a series of shared challenges as it relates to the economy, as it relates to security, insecurity, the threat of violence and the impact of drug trafficking on both our countries," said Denis McDonough, the National Security Council's director for strategic communications.

Obama admires Calderon's work to fight the drug cartels, McDonough said, but he also wants to "more deeply develop our bilateral relationship on economic matters, as well as on matters related to energy and climate change."

But fighting drugs and guns will be key discussion points, Mexican leaders told the Post.

"Drugs will be at the top of the agenda. It will dominate the agenda because the drug fight is all that Calderon talks about, all that he thinks about," Jorge Castaneda, foreign secretary for Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, told the newspaper.

"The question now is what is President Obama going to do to back up all the nice speeches about how confronting the drug and arms trafficking is a shared responsibility between the two nations," Andres Rozental, a former Mexican deputy foreign minister, said to the Post.