U.S. President Joe Biden told his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that Mexico's success was crucial to the hemisphere and that he would view the U.S. southern neighbor as an equal. 

The two leaders discussed immigration, COVID-19 and commercial issues. It was Biden's second virtual bilateral meeting with a foreign leader since becoming president on January 20. The first was with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"The United States and Mexico are stronger when we stand together," Biden said at the beginning of their teleconference. But "we haven't been perfect neighbors to each other." 

During the Obama-Biden administration, he continued, "we looked at Mexico as an equal. You are equal." "What you do in Mexico and how you succeed" affects the rest of the hemisphere, Biden said.

Lopez Obrador, for his part, told Biden that he was thankful that the new president was "willing to maintain good relations for the good of our people in North America."

Lopez Obrador came to the meeting with his own checklist of priorities, including pressing Biden to give pharmaceutical company Pfizer permission to sell his country vaccine produced in the United States, something that Canada has also requested from the White House.

"We want to have an answer about a request we made," Lopez Obrador told reporters at his daily news conference, hours before speaking with Biden. 

Ahead of the meeting, White House officials reiterated that Biden remained focused on first vaccinating U.S. citizens before turning his attention to assisting other nations. Biden, in a brief exchange with reporters at the start of the meeting, said the two leaders would discuss vaccines.

But an official statement released after the meeting ended made no mention of vaccine distribution.

In a joint statement released after the meeting, the two countries said they would deepen their cooperation on COVID-19 response. 

They also said they would work together on immigration policies "that recognize the dignity of migrants and the imperative of orderly, safe, and regular migration."

Lopez Obrador is pushing for more U.S. work permits for Mexicans and Central Americans, including professionals.

The talks came after four years of tumultuous U.S.-Mexico relations under former President Donald Trump, who shut down the U.S. border to migration, tore up the NAFTA trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada, and labelled Mexican immigrants drug traffickers and "rapists."

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: U.S. President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas look up during a virtual bilateral meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez from the White House in Washington, U.S., March 1, 2021. /Reuters)