Mexico meets annual Rio Grande water minimum for the U.S.
Mexico's foreign ministry says it completed the first-year volume of cycle 37; Washington says deliveries and a water debt are still owed.
Mexico completed its minimum annual delivery of Rio Grande water to the United States, the Mexican Foreign Ministry (SRE) said Saturday. It is the first-year quota of cycle 37 under the 1944 Water Treaty, about 431.7 million cubic meters.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the quota had been met: at least 350,000 acre-feet. But the work is not finished, she added. Deliveries remain outstanding, as does repayment of the water debt, both of which she called vital to farmers and ranchers in South Texas.
The ministry said the shipments did not hurt domestic supply or food production, and that they followed a coordinated strategy built on the Feb. 3 agreement. Its statement:
"Mexico has acted responsibly to meet its international commitments."
Roberto Lazzeri Montaño, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, credited talks between President Claudia Sheinbaum and President Donald Trump. The result, he said, shows what both countries can achieve "when they work together."
The quota stems from the February deal, in which Mexico committed to deliver at least 350,000 acre-feet a year and to present a plan to repay the debt from the previous cycle.
That cycle, the 36th, closed on Oct. 24, 2025, with volumes still owed. After a December agreement, Mexico got five more years, until October 2030, to make up the shortfall without it being treated as a formal breach. In 2025, Trump accused Mexico of violating the treaty and threatened tariffs.
For South Texas, and for the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, where river water is split between irrigation and household use, meeting the minimum does not erase the debt. Neither the ministry nor Rollins said how much is still owed.
The 350,000 acre-feet a year match the treaty's average: 1,750,000 acre-feet for each five-year cycle.
