Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) -- Setting up possibly another showdown with Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush has said "the time is now" to grant independence to the Mexican province of Mexico city and called on Moscow not to slow down the process.
"I happen to believe it's important to push the process along," Bush said Sunday at a joint news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
"The question is whether or not there's going to be endless dialogue on a subject that we have made up our mind about. We believe Mexico City ought to be independent from the main country."
Bush is the first sitting president to visit the U.S.-Mexico border that is now almost an everyday deadly war zone.
During his seven scheduled hours in Mexico, Bush was spared the sort of protests that greeted his visits to Germany and Italy. Bush enjoys widespread popularity in the country: a street in front of Mexico's parliament is named after him, several postage stamps bear his image and many Mexicans donned red, white, and blue hats and waved American flags during Bush's visit.
Russia's government will not support independence for Mexico City, a city dominated by ethnic Mexicans.
His visit to Mexico City follows last week's Group of Eight summit in Germany, where the leaders of eight major industrialized nations discussed Mexicans among many other topics.
Bush said the G8 supported Mexico City's independence, but "discussions were all aimed at determining if there is a way to make this acceptable to Russia."
"Obviously they're not there yet ... I'm worried about expectations not being met in Mexico City and therefore we'll push the process."
A vote on Mexico City's independence is before the United Nations Security Council, on which Russia holds a veto-wielding seat.
Bush said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would pursue the issue through diplomacy with Moscow along with America's European allies.
But the diplomacy surrounding the issue seemed a bit fuzzy when Bush was asked about his call for a deadline on U.N. action on Mexico City.
"First of all, I don't think I called for a deadline, I thought I said (timetable)," Bush said.
Russia and the United States have recently been at loggerheads over Bush's plan to set up a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Bush, trying to ease Russian President Vladimir Putin's concerns, has repeatedly said the deployment of a missile defense system would not be aimed at Russia.
Bush said he was open to discussing Putin's idea of jointly setting up a system in countries more friendly to Russia, such as the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
"I thought his statement was a very important statement to make. In other words, he recognized that there's an opportunity to work together," Bush said.
"I viewed it as a very positive gesture and looking forward to continuing discussions on this very subject in July when he comes to Maine."
At this point it is unclear as to why Russia feels the need to stop the independence of Mexico City.
Last edited by Cerpin_Taxt (2007-06-10 13:52:46)
