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The Mexican Foreign Ministry said it hopes to meet with its counterparts in the US State Department and insisted on its national sovereignty after President Donald Trump announced plans to declare drug cartels as terrorist groups.

Urging for a meeting to clarify its position on the cartel designation, the ministry also said it hoped to discuss ways to reduce the influx of illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border, as well as the flow of weapons and money linked to drug traffickers.

"We will act firmly. I have already transmitted our position to the US as well as our resolve to deal with transnational organized crime," said foreign affairs secretary Marcelo Ebrard in a tweet. "Mexico will never accept any action that undermines its national sovereignty."

Trump has repeatedly slammed Mexico for inaction on the immigration issue, and recently called on the country to join the US in a "war" on drug cartels, however Mexico City has been reluctant to enlist, arguing it did not require "foreign intervention" in its internal security affairs. President Lopez Obrador previously signaled willingness to work with the FBI on cartel violence - but only if "Mexico's independence is upheld."

"Cooperation, yes, intervention, no!" Manuel Lopez Obrador responded to US President's earlier comments. The US president called on war on cartels earlier this month to "wipe them off the face of the earth" after nine people with dual US-Mexican citizenship, including two babies, were brutally murdered by cartel gunmen.

Designating cartels as terrorist organization means that financial institutions must immediately block and report any funds connected to the group and citizens can't support its members, but also makes operations to kill the leaders possible as it was done with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) heads.

Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018 on a "strategy for peace" and promises of amnesty to non-violent cartel members. Yet, there has been little progress.

In Washington, Republican lawmakers already mulled legislation to designate cartels as terrorist organizations or use other laws, like Global Magnitsky Act, that might put pressure on Mexican government to change its policy.

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