Nicolás Pascual de la Parte
Ambassador of Spain
About 700 years ago, after a long pilgrimage, the future Mexica people finally found the sign promised by their god-guide Huitzilopochtli to found their new city: an eagle devouring a snake perched on a cactus on an islet in the middle of Lake Texcoco. And there they built the great Tenochtitlán. 500 years ago Hernán Cortés began the conquest of the Mexica empire, placing it under the dominion of the Crown of Castile, giving rise to a new mestizo reality: New Spain. 200 years ago the independence of New Spain was consummated, initiated by the Cry of Dolores, to give birth to today’s Mexico. Three anniversaries that deserve to be celebrated as defining milestones of Mexico’s history and identity. A good occasion for Mexicans and Spaniards to stop and reflect together on our common legacy and, more than anything else, on our shared future.
Many perspectives and different visions can be adopted to approach this exercise of mutual historical fertilization, but all of them will necessarily lead to an intimate conviction: neither Mexico nor Spain can fully understand each other without the other. And from this solid foundation, patiently forged in a melting pot of blood, cultures, languages, coexistence, loves and misunderstandings, we can project our gazes and longings towards a promising fraternal future. Let us reaffirm with legitimate pride our past in order to build a splendorous tomorrow for our peoples, contributing the best of ourselves.
Mexico is the natural bridge between North and South America, the great Mesoamerican country, with two oceanic facades, to the Atlantic and the Pacific. It thus constitutes the central section of the backbone of the American hemisphere, where Anglo-Saxon Protestant America meets and shakes hands with Hispanic Catholic America on the one hand, and Western civilization with Mesoamerican and Pacific Rim civilizations on the other. This privileged geographical position is coupled with a young and growing population, a thriving democracy, a dynamic economy and a vibrant culture. Mexico is one of the driving forces behind the development of Ibero-America, a multilateral actor of growing importance within the OECD, the WTO and the G-20, and is destined to become an emerging power on the global stage.
Therefore, 2021, a year of commemorative centenaries for Mexico, can and should be a turning point in the path of its strategic alliance with Spain and, therefore, with the European Union (EU). Last year, after lengthy negotiations, the Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Cooperation Agreement (Global Agreement) signed in 2000 was updated, which has been a key instrument to boost direct investment and trade in both directions (75.5 billion dollars in 2019), modernize our productive fabric (making it more productive and competitive), institutionalize a fruitful and systematic political dialogue, and articulate mechanisms for inclusive and functional cooperation. As a result, Mexico is today the EU’s second largest trading partner in Latin America and the EU is Mexico’s third largest trading partner (behind the USA and China). Mexico also benefits from its great commercial openness, actively militating against protectionism, being the Ibero-American country with the highest participation in world trade. Despite these obvious advances, there is still a long way to go, and it is better to do it together, Mexicans and Europeans.
To this end, Spain is ready to continue exercising with determination and efficiency its role as gateway to the EU and defender of Mexico’s interests before its European partners, with the aim of tackling together the common challenges arising from the cruel pandemic of the coronavirus and its associated health, economic and social crises. We advocate international solidarity in the distribution and financing of vaccines as a common global good. We will join forces to alleviate the devastating consequences for the most disadvantaged in our societies, and we will leave no one behind. Spain and Europe will help Mexico to undertake the necessary structural reforms in the areas of energy, environment, transport, telecommunications and new digital technologies. And all of us will advocate for an effective, renewed and strengthened multilateralism, based on international law, human rights and humanitarian law, with the United Nations system as the center of gravity.
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