Speaking in Mexico City at Cabinet-level talks on boosting economic and commercial ties with one of the United States’ top trading partners, Biden reassured Mexican officials that such talk does not reflect progress in the countries’ bilateral relations.

“The main message I wanted to say to you is that I understand that you can’t poison the well and at the same time work out a real estate agreement to buy the well,” he said.

Without naming names Biden was generally critical of Republican candidates, several of whom have proposed measures from walling the entire U.S.-Mexico border to deporting all 11 million people estimated to be living in the United States illegally. GOP front-runner Donald Trump said last year that Mexico was sending crime, drugs and “rapists” north of the border.

“Some of the rhetoric coming from some of the presidential candidates on the other team are I think dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised,” Biden said. “But here’s what I’m here to tell you: They do not, they do not, they do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people.”

Biden was accompanied by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

Jewell and her Mexican counterparts signed agreements to cooperate on energy issues, conservation and preparing for the impacts of climate change, the U.S. Interior Department said in a statement. The secretary also commended recent Mexican reforms opening its energy sector to private investment.

“As allies and partners, the economies of the U.S. and Mexico are inextricably linked and a strong energy sector is a key part of that equation,” Jewell said.

Trade between the United States and Mexico totaled about $530 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Biden was meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto later in the day.

The High-Level Economic Dialogue forum between the United States and Mexico was established by President Obama in 2013. This is the third year officials have met to discuss “economic growth, job creation and competiveness,” the statement said.

Also at Thursday’s talks was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who last June was nominated to become Washington’s next ambassador to Mexico.

Her nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in November. But it has been blocked in the full Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio, another Republican presidential candidate, who objects to her role in implementing the Obama administration’s policy of normalizing ties with Cuba.

PETER ORSI, Associated Press

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