WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Border security, the drug war  and arms smuggling will join trade and the recession on the  agenda of President Barack Obama’s first “three amigos” summit  with the leaders of Mexico and Canada this weekend in Mexico.

With Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the U.S.  border and up into Canada, and violence — often with U.S.-made  weapons — spreading north, security is in the news in all  three countries, as much, if not more, than trade, economic  recession and climate change.

“What affects our bordering neighbors has the potential to  affect us all, so we want to be certain that we have the  tightest, best possible, cooperation,” Obama’s national  security adviser, James Jones, told reporters before the  meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Sunday and Monday.

Obama has made relations with his neighbors a priority  during his first months in office. Since becoming president in  January, he has met both Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper  and Mexican President Felipe Calderon several times.

Mexican drug gangs are killing rivals in record numbers,  despite Calderon’s three-year army assault on the cartels.

The  death rate this year is about a third higher than in 2008, and  police in the United States and as far north as Vancouver have  blamed violence on the Mexican traffickers.

“Violence, particularly in Mexico, has increased  exponentially. There are some signs that it is heading north of  the border not just in the United States but also in Canada,”  said Shannon O’Neil, a Latin American expert at the Council on  Foreign Relations in New York.

Obama promised full support to Calderon during a visit in  April, but Mexico complains that anti-drug equipment and  training are taking too long to arrive and hopes the summit  will move things ahead.