Christie, NJ officials head to Mexico

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is getting ready to head south of the border next week.

Christie will lead a delegation of state officials and business leaders to Mexico.

"What I'm hoping to do is to have there be really strengthened economic opportunities between New Jersey and Mexico, and that's the main thrust of the trip," he said during a press conference in Sea Bright Thursday.

The governor indicated he'll be meeting with the Mexican finance minister, the energy minister, as well as the president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto.

"Whatever issues they want to talk about I'll be happy to discuss, but my thrust down there is to try and strengthen our economic ties," he said, "that's what my agenda is."

He also said if you have these kind of trips and they prove to have an economic advantage for your state, that's positive, and if you become better educated about different issues, that's always a good thing as well.

Christie said he won't be visiting the border because he's not the president of the United States, and is not responsible for border security.

"What would I do exactly? Like, you know, bring troops with me or something? I mean come on," he said. "This is silliness, if I went down there and looked at it, what steps am I supposed to take exactly, send the New Jersey National Guard there?"

The governor also said he will not attempt to speak Spanish during the trip.

'You have to know what you're good at and what you're not good at, I never have been really good at foreign languages," Christie said. "I tried in high school I tried in college, and I never had an aptitude for it, and I think the worst thing in the world is when politicians try to fake it, you know they've got a few things written in a foreign language and they say it and they sound stupid and everybody knows they don't really know what they're talking about - I'm not going to do that."

By: David Matthau