President Salinas Given Credit : U.S., Mexico Basking in New Era of Warmer Ties

For almost two centuries, the United States and Mexico have lived as uneasy neighbors, trapped in a tangled relationship marked by bickering, misunderstanding and sometimes war.

But suddenly, a new, more conciliatory tone has overcome the habitual frictions between the two countries--and it was on ample display Monday in a top-level meeting that produced an outpouring of enthusiasm on both sides.

“We are committed to a new relationship,” U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III said. “From now on, we will define the U.S.-Mexican relationship not by the narrow differences which divide us, but by the growing agenda of common opportunities that unite us as never before.”

Mexican Foreign Minister Fernando Solana agreed, citing the “high level of maturity and warmth” between the two governments. He said the level of accord is “unprecedented.”

From drugs to debt, issues that once created a wide gulf between the two neighbors, Mexico and the United States are in unusual accord.

U.S. officials and Mexican political analysts attribute the improved relationship to President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who has taken a range of national and international policy positions urged on Mexico by the United States.

As a result, Mexico’s traditional anti-Yanqui rhetoric and Washington’s chronic Mexico-bashing have been replaced by mutual compliments and promises of good will.

Some analysts, noting the long history of friction between the two neighbors, warn that this era of good feelings may well be short-lived.

“It’s all honey on cornflakes,” said Mexican pundit Adolfo Aguilar Zinser. “The Mexican government has made a decision to avoid conflict at all costs.”

Array of Changes

Nevertheless, change is evident across the entire, complex range of U.S.-Mexican relations:

--In narcotics trafficking, the Bush Administration credits Salinas with cracking down on drug kingpins--and corrupt Mexican officials--with more resolve than ever before.

--In economic policy, Mexico gave U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady his first major success in negotiating a debt reduction agreement last month, and Salinas has sought to encourage both private enterprise and foreign investment--a shift especially dear to the hearts of Bush aides.

--In foreign policy, Salinas has quietly dropped Mexico’s opposition to U.S. policy in Central America and has cooperated with U.S. efforts to put diplomatic pressure on Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega.

Monday’s meeting brought together five U.S. Cabinet officers--the largest such delegation ever--and six Mexican Cabinet ministers in a daylong conference that produced agreements to crack down on drug money laundering in Mexico, build two new bridges across the Rio Grande, and speed up efforts to build a joint sewage treatment plant on the U.S. side of the border between San Diego and Tijuana.

‘Fighting’ Issues

More important, U.S. and Mexican officials said, this was the first such meeting in memory that was not dominated by squabbles over drugs, immigration or other immediate concerns.

“U.S.-Mexican relations used to be defined by the issues we were fighting about,” a senior American official said. “We’ve turned the corner on that. . . . We’re building a relationship that you could actually call normal.”

Both sides apparently were so determined to pursue the new good relationship that they touched only briefly on potentially divisive issues such as the U.S. demand for the right to pursue drug traffickers into Mexico and U.S. immigration policy.

Mexico’s shift toward Washington appears to be a product of the Salinas government’s pressing need for economic assistance, relief from a crushing foreign debt of more than $100 billion, and Salinas’ own search for political legitimacy after his election last year, whose fairness was widely questioned.

“This change has taken place at the initiative of Mexico before the Bush Administration even decided how it wanted to conduct the relationship,” Aguilar said.

Indeed, the first few months of the two new administrations were dominated by old-style misunderstandings--over the naming of U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, initially viewed here as a would-be “proconsul,” over Salinas’ appointment of a high police official wanted for crimes in San Diego, and over American plans to build a border ditch to keep out illegal immigrants.

Mutual Effort

But since February, both governments have made a concerted effort to reduce tensions--and have largely succeeded.

Aguilar said Salinas wants to avoid conflict with Washington for three reasons: Mexico’s private sector sees good relations with the United States as a sign of the government’s pro-business sentiment; friction with Washington would reopen controversy in the United States over the stability of Mexico’s political system, and confrontation would mean less economic support from the U.S. Treasury.

Instead, the Bush Administration has committed itself publicly to supporting Salinas--as a highly visible test case of whether following U.S. advice can indeed rescue slumping Third World economies.

“I take my hat off to the Salinas administration,” Treasury Secretary Brady told reporters here Monday. Brady especially praised Salinas for his policies--long urged by Washington--of encouraging domestic private enterprise and welcoming foreign investment.

Brady said those policies and the recently-concluded debt reduction agreement had attracted so much capital into Mexico that a planned $2-billion U.S. bridge loan may be “less necessary than it was before.”