MEXICO CITY—Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the U.S. presidential election until legal challenges are concluded.
The Associated Press decision desk projected a victory for Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, pushing him over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes.
Confirming the winner of the Electoral College, which decides the formal winner of the U.S. presidential race even if the media declares a winner or a candidate concedes, is a process that can take the states and Congress up to two months to complete.
Mexico is the United States’ top trade partner, with over $600 billion of annual two-way commerce, and the bilateral relationship with its northern neighbor is by far the most important for Mexico.
“With regard to the U.S. election, we are going to wait until all the legal matters have been resolved,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference.
“I can’t congratulate one candidate or the other. I want to wait until the electoral process is over.”
Republican President Donald Trump and his team have filed a raft of lawsuits to challenge the results.
The Mexican president linked his caution to his own allegations of fraud in two presidential elections he contested, in 2006 and 2012, before winning on his third bid in 2018.
In his remarks, Lopez Obrador described the decision as “politically prudent.”
He said he had a good relationship with both Trump and former Vice President Biden, whom he said he had known for a decade.
“President Trump has been very respectful with us,” he said. “And we are thankful that he has not meddled.”
By Anthony Esposito and Dave Graham. NTD contributed to this report.
