(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador chose not to respond to the U.S. president’s provocations about paying for a border wall and insisted Donald Trump pay to aid Central Americans.

Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as he’s known, said he didn’t discuss the wall in his first phone call with President Trump the prior evening. Instead, he called on Trump to join Mexico in the nation’s pledge to pay $5 billion next year to stem migration through jobs and development programs in Mexico and Central America after Trump tweeted that Mexico would pay for the wall.

Trump "invited me, and I’m also able to go to Washington, but I think for both him and me, there needs to be a motivation, and the most important one would be to sign this accord" to fund Central American development, Lopez Obrador said at a press conference Thursday. "I consider this to be more important, or as important, as the free trade agreement."

Lopez Obrador faces a pitched battle over immigration and border security with Trump, who has called on Mexico to stop migrant caravans or risk a complete border closure. In contrast to the Pena Nieto administration’s constant rejection of Trump’s wall payment tweets, AMLO shifted focus of the conversation toward his Central America fund.

Since taking office a week and a half ago, AMLO has evaded a dust-up with Trump and appears to be attempting to direct the exchanges with the U.S. president toward his own anti-poverty agenda.

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