The Mexican government has been holding meetings and wrestling with how to handle its northern neighbor and its new president, Donald Trump, who has vowed to build a wall between the two countries.
"I recognize there are challenging times and intense work ahead," Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said in a statement Monday night, four days after he canceled his scheduled visit with Trump in Washington.
"The challenges are there. But we are ready to face them," he added.
Challenges like the border wall that Trump insists will be paid for by Mexico.
At a meeting Monday in the country's Senate building, Mexico's foreign minister reiterated that was not going to happen.
"We reject any notion that Mexico will be paying for the wall," said Luis Videgaray Caso, secretary of foreign affairs.
The tone from Mexican authorities recently has been more conciliatory.
On Friday, when Peña Nieto and Trump were battling through Twitter and the meeting was called off, one Mexican senator suggested to MSNBC that the country stop buying corn from the U.S. Corn Belt and stop collaborating on security.
Also Friday, former Mexico Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jorge Castañeda Gutman warned that evening that Trump was "playing with fire" and said steps Mexico could take could include expelling U.S. drug enforcement agents and easing up on control of immigration flows on its southern border.
But on Monday, Videgaray stressed the importance of coming up with a solution that benefits both countries.
"We have not broken with the U.S.," he said "we continue to work toward a common dialogue."
