MEXICO’S president said Friday he wanted to strengthen relations with his new U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, whose threats and barbs against the country raised fears of a major economic crisis, and battered its currency.

    President Enrique Pena Nieto, pilloried at home for meeting Trump in August after the New York businessman called Mexican migrants rapists and murderers, said on Twitter he would defend the interests of Mexico and its people in a “respectful” dialogue.

    “We will work to strengthen our relationship with shared responsibility,” said Pena Nieto.

    Trump vowed to build a wall along the U.S. southern border to keep Mexicans out and threatened to tear up a joint trade deal if he cannot recast it in favor of the United States.

    The White House website said Friday that Trump was committed to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which underpins Mexico’s economy, and would move to withdraw if no “fair deal” is forthcoming.

    Mexico’s government said Pena Nieto will make a foreign policy address Monday morning, a few days before a delegation of senior Mexican officials travel to Washington to discuss relations with top Trump advisers.

    The delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who said in an interview late Friday that he will meet with senior White House aides as well as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Gen. John Kelly.

    Videgaray pledged to “negotiate without fear” and said he will work to ensure that remittances sent from Mexicans living in the United States to relatives back home are protected from any seizure.

    Trump’s inauguration was marked by subdued protests across Mexico. One political activist on Mexico City’s main thoroughfare held up a banner declaring “Racist, gringo Trump...son of Satan, you are a danger to the world.”

    More than three-quarters of Mexicans hold a bad or very bad opinion of Trump, according to a poll of 600 people by polling firm Gabinete de Comunicacion Estrategica (GCE).

    Trump has threatened to slap hefty tariffs on Mexican-made goods, sending the peso to a string of historic lows against the dollar. Concern about him is widespread.(SD-Agencies)