Biden follows Xi Jinping in pursuing ‘fentanyl blocking’ diplomacy against Mexican President | yunhap news

Delivery time2023-11-18 06:33

Ahead of the presidential election, appeal to voters by solving the number one cause of death in the U.S. aged 18 to 49

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Joon-hyung Cho = U.S. President Joe Biden used the opportunity of a bilateral summit on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting to focus on diplomacy to block fentanyl, a narcotic drug.

President Biden met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in San Francisco on the 17th (local time), the final day of the APEC summit.

According to the White House joint press team, President Biden said, “Mexico and the United States are together,” and “We are working together to respond to the ‘pandemic’ of arms trafficking, organized crime, and drugs, including fentanyl.” said.

President López Obardor said, “What Mexico is doing is continuing to help prevent the introduction of fentanyl components and precursors,” adding, “We are fully aware of the harm it causes to American youth.”

“This is an act of solidarity, a matter of humanism,” he said. “We will continue to do our best to support the fight against narcotics smuggling, including the influx of fentanyl and other chemical precursors.”

Abuse of the narcotic painkiller fentanyl is a serious social problem, becoming the number one cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 49.

The main inflow route to the U.S. is that raw materials from China go to Mexico, are processed, and then smuggled into the U.S.

The United States has repeatedly called on the Chinese government to crack down on Chinese companies that supply fentanyl raw materials to drug organizations in Mexico, and reached an agreement to form an anti-drug cooperation working group and cooperate at the U.S.-China summit held on the 15th.

In the end, President Biden took advantage of this APEC summit diplomacy opportunity to meet with the leaders of China and Mexico, where fentanyl’s ‘raw material suppliers’ and ‘intermediate manufacturing plants’ are located, and discuss cooperation for related matters.

Also, on the 16th, the day after the U.S.-China summit, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it would exclude the Forensic Research Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security from the export control list in order to cooperate in countering drugs.

Sanctions imposed in May 2020 on the grounds that they were related to human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region were lifted to cooperate in cracking down on fentanyl.

President Biden’s ‘fentanyl blocking diplomacy’ seemed to be an attempt to show voters that he is making efforts to resolve national issues ahead of the presidential election in November next year.

jhcho@yna.co.kr

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2023/11/18 06:33 Sent