North American Leaders Summit: Obama, Pena Nieto and Harper Talk Climate Change, Commerce and Security

The leaders of the three North American countries, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, met with reporters following their North American Leaders Summit on Wednesday.

Pena Nieto opened the press conference and began by discussing bilateral meetings with Obama.

"Specifically, we talked about education," Pena Nieto said. "We have set the task to have more academic exchanges so that more Mexican students can study in the United States and, reciprocally, students from the United States come to Mexico to study. The number of students so far is somehow low, considering the potential that we have."

The Mexican president said a goal had been set to have 50,000 U.S. students study in Mexico, and 100,000 Mexican students do the same in the U.S.

"We have revised our security agenda and we have agreed to maintain a strategic dialogue, to coordinate efforts so we can face a common issue -- security in both of our countries and, specifically, security at the border," Pena Nieto continued.

Pena Nieto then outlined four main topics of discussion between the leaders of all three nations.

The first is to "boost competitiveness" of the North American countries as a bloc. To do this, the leaders plan to improve infrastructure, especially as it pertains to international transportation and commerce between the three countries.

"We also agreed to standardize and expedite all the procedures that take place in our customhouses," Pena Nieto said. "We have also agreed to enable the movement of individuals, and by this have Trusted Travelers Programs."

Secondly, the three leaders agreed to focus on "sustainable development." Included in those discussions was the issue of addressing and mitigated the effects of climate change. In that area, the three leaders also noted that they had discussed, and intend to work together on, the preservation of the Monarch butterfly, a topic that had garnered some significant interest in science circles as of late.

The third topic was citizen security, and Pena Nieto announced that the three countries had pledged to improve the exchange of information and cooperation between law enforcement agencies across borders. He specifically mentioned "money laundering and illicit financial flows," and cited the need to integrate the financial systems of the three economies.

"We have also restated our commitment to support and cooperate with the Central America region as well as the Caribbean because they are partners in this hemisphere," Pena Nieto stated as the final area of discussions. " We have committed to foster development, economic growth and citizen security as well."

President Obama reiterated much of the same points as Pena Nieto, but also took the opportunity to comment on the recent outbreaks of violence in both Venezuela and the Ukraine.

"Given our shared commitment to democratic values and human rights, I want to take this opportunity to address the situation in Venezuela and Ukraine, and the unacceptable violence in those two countries, which the United States strongly condemns," Obama said.

"In Venezuela, rather than trying to distract from its own failings by making up false accusations against diplomats from the United States, the government ought to focus on addressing the legitimate grievances of the Venezuelan people. So, along with the Organization of American States, we call on the Venezuelan government to release protestors that it's detained and engage in real dialogue.

"With regard to Ukraine, along with our European partners, we will continue to engage all sides. And we continue to stress to President Yanukovych and the Ukrainian government that they have the primary responsibility to prevent the kind of terrible violence that we've seen, to withdraw riot police, to work with the opposition to restore security and human dignity and move the country forward."

Disappointing to some audiences in all three countries was the lack of discussion on key "hot button" issues.

Mexicans are anxiously awaiting an immigration overhaul in the United States, an effort that seems to stall out every time proponents try to gain any momentum. Mexico is also not happy with the strict visa requirements that were levelled against its citizens by Canada in 2009. Canadians wanted to see progress on getting approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, a contentious issue among lawmakers in the U.S. Americans are concerned with the deteriorating security situation in western Mexico where vigilantes have risen up to fill a void in the protection of citizens.

"Even the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that the Obama administration is touting as a way to promote growth between North America and fast-growing markets in Asia, got just one sentence in a 1,600-word joint statement from the leaders," noted David Nakamura of the Washington Post.