Obama, Mexican president stress importance of relationship between U.S. and Mexico

President Barack Obama says trade with Mexico brings important investment and jobs to the U.S.

In a news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the White House, Obama says the United States sells more to Mexico than to China, India and Russia combined.

Obama says he has worked to deepen the U.S. relationship with Mexico and that the two countries are not just strategic and economic partners, “we’re also neighbors and we’re friends.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pledged to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it.

Pena Nieto says a good relationship with the United States is “essential” for his country.

Pena Nieto has said his government will work with whoever succeeds Obama in January. Former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is poised to become the Democratic nominee for president when her party when her party convenes next week in Philadelphia.

Pena Nieto has sharply criticized Trump’s tone, telling a Mexico City-based newspaper earlier this year that Trump speaks the type of language that gave rise to dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Mexico’s leader has also said Trump’s stance is hurting his country’s relations with the U.S., and that Mexico will not pay for a border wall.