Mexico’s president has denounced the United States’ multibillion-dollar military aid for Ukraine as irrational, saying Washington must allocate those resources to help ease the migrant crisis facing Latin American countries.
“…how much have they destined for the Ukraine war? 30 to 50 billion dollars for the war. Which is the most irrational thing you can have. And damaging,” Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference on Monday.
He then pointed to a recent measure by US Congress, which decided to freeze further aid for Ukraine’s war against Russia after wrangling on a stopgap funding bill that was aimed at temporarily averting a US government shutdown.
“I was just looking at how now they’re not authorizing aid for the war in Ukraine…. So, they do have to modify their strategy and learn respect,” he added.
The Mexican head of state has, on several occasions, called on Washington to devote more funds to helping economic development in Central America and the Caribbean, and also assist those countries in their efforts to curb the flow of migrants towards the United States.
Since the beginning of the Ukraine war in last November, Lopez Obrador has sought to keep Mexico neutral, while supporting peace talks to end the conflict and criticizing Western military aid for Kiev.
Russia has said time and again that the generous military aid extended to Ukraine by the US and its Western allies only serves to prolong the war and add to the suffering of Ukrainian people.
Moscow has also asserted that by helping out Ukraine against Russia, the West is waging a “proxy war” against Russian forces.
Speaking last month, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said through their support for Ukraine, Western countries were directly fighting against Moscow.
“You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us,” Lavrov said, adding, “We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn’t change things,” the top diplomat said.
He emphasized that Western countries are “de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians.”
