Washington visit 'very intense': Mexican president

Mexico's president said Thursday his visit to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump was "very intense" and important for both countries.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met Trump on Wednesday to mark the launch of the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade deal, revamped after Trump had branded its predecessor treaty a killer of working-class US jobs.

"It was a visit with little time but very intense, and I consider it very important for the three North American countries because the new trade agreement was put into effect," Lopez Obrador said before flying back to Mexico City.

"This is going to mean investment for the region, businesses, work, and the wellbeing of our people," the president added later in a message on social media. The treaty went into effect on July 1.

In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump and Lopez Obrador voiced mutual praise and ignored the tensions that have marked relations between the neighbors, particularly over migration and security policy since Trump took office.

As part of his austerity policy, the leftist president was returning to his country in an economy-class seat on a commercial flight that stops in Miami on the way to Mexico City.

Canada was a notable absentee in Washington, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to travel amid Ottawa's concerns about the US reimposing tariffs on Canadian aluminum.