WASHINGTON.- United States' President, Barack Obama called Enrique Peña Nieto, the virtual winner of Mexico's elections, by telephone today to congratulate him on his triumph during a "free, fair and clear" electing process and to reaffirm the "tight cooperation" between the two countries.

Obama congratulated Peña Nieto, from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) "for his victory according to the initial results released by the electoral authorities in Mexico" informed the White House through a press release.

The leader also applauded the Mexican people for "displaying their commitment to the democratic values through a free, fair and clear electing process" added the White House.

With a 95.05% of the voting ballots analyzed by now, Peña Nieto is the virtual winner of the presidential elections from last Sunday in Mexico with a 38.02% of voters in his favor.

During their phone call, Obama reiterated to Peña Nieto his "commitment of working in association with Mexico" and stated that he expects to "move forward in common goals" like the promotion of democracy, economic prosperity and the region's safety.

The two leaders reaffirmed the "close bilateral cooperation" between the United States and Mexico "based on mutual respect, shared responsibility and deep connections between both of their people", remarked the White House.

The spokesperson for the United States Department of State, Victoria Nuland, also congratulated Peña Nieto for his "apparent victory" based on the preliminary results and highlighted her "trust" that the bilateral cooperation in matters of safety and antinarcotics will continue under his command.

"We trust that we will be able to keep having a good cooperation in all matters because they are really important for the Mexican people and the American people (…) Mexico has a lot at stake and the United States has a lot at stake", said Nuland on her daily press conference.

She also congratulated current Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his Office "for the courage and commitment of their actions" and pointed the US leader's will to "keep working with him until the end of his term of Office".

"We hope that the cooperation we have maintained with him will continue with Peña Nieto's Office once he takes possession" asserted Nuland.

Obama visited Mexico last June to take part in the G20 summit held at Los Cabos.

There he maintained a bilateral reunion with Calderón during which he invited Mexico to join the 9 countries from the Asia-Pacific region (the United States, Brunei, Malaysia, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Vietnam) that are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement known as TPP.

Calderón announced that Mexico will join those negotiations and also took advantage of the situation to thank Obama for his decision of temporarily stopping the deportation of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants who arrived to the US when they were children.

According to Obama's office, this measure will benefit approximately 800,000 immigrants; a lot of them are Hispanics, a community where Mexicans are still the majority in the United States.

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Original Text : EFE Agency

Traducción: Karen B. Licea.