<h1>Mexican president prioritizes cartel crackdowns, rejects U.S. troops, seeks security agreement but accepts joint monitoring group</h1> The Mexican president has sought to manage a fraught relationship with the U.S. president by emphasizing cartel crackdowns to avert threatened tariffs and pursuing a formal security agreement that would protect Mexican sovereignty and set clear cooperation rules; U.S. offers of troop deployment were publicly rejected. After a bilateral meeting with the U.S. secretary of state, the governments declined to sign a binding deal and instead created a high-level joint monitoring group, reflecting limited U.S. concessions despite a recent U.S. strike in the region. Observers say Mexico's remaining leverage includes migration cooperation and strong domestic political support, but legal and diplomatic options are constrained.