The Diplomat
The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Spain and Mexico are working to delimit the issues that could be dealt with in a future Binational Commission, a body that has not met since 2017, and which could be held on 15 December, as The Diplomat has learned from Mexican sources.
The latest chapter in this work was the meeting held on Wednesday in Madrid between the State Secretary for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, and the Mexican Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carmen Moreno Toscano.
This is the first meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Political Subcommittee, created last March, following the visit to Mexico by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in an attempt to channel relations between the two countries, after a period of disagreements caused mainly by the verbal attacks on Spain and its companies by the Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
After the meeting on 9 March between Albares and his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, tensions eased and there have been repeated efforts on both sides to try to strengthen relations between two countries that have many ties that unite them.
Just a few days ago, Spain’s new ambassador to Mexico, Juan Duarte, who last week presented his credentials to López Obrador, said at a meeting with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the Aztec capital that he would seek to create a direct channel of communication with the Mexican presidency to highlight the positive actions carried out by Spanish investors in favour of Mexico.
Economic relations between Spain and Mexico are of great importance. Spain is currently the second largest investor in Mexico, after the United States, and the largest among EU countries. Mexico, in turn, is the sixth largest investor in Spain and the leading Latin American investor in our country.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the Spanish Foreign Ministry, at the meeting between Fernández Trigo and Moreno Toscano they discussed “a series of priority chapters for the bilateral relationship, such as bilateral, regional and multilateral political affairs, trade, investment and infrastructure”.
“The broad agenda also focused on issues of mutual benefit such as technical cooperation, education, culture and tourism, science and technology, consular and migration issues, as well as security issues and the fight against crime,” the communiqué adds.
The Foreign Ministry points out that “the dynamic relations between Mexico and Spain are intertwined in the strong links that exist in different areas, ranging from our societies to economic and cultural relations”.
It also stresses that the contact is part of the preparations for the XIII Binational Commission, for which no date has been set, although The Diplomat has learned that it is initially scheduled for 15 December. The meeting also discussed the forthcoming XVI Spanish-Mexican Interparliamentary Meeting.
Carmen Moreno, for her part, said that the bilateral meeting “is broad, solid and dynamic, due to the bonds of friendship and the desire for cooperation between the two countries”, and expressed her gratitude to Spain for its continued support in advancing the modernisation of the Mexico-European Union Global Agreement.
At a meeting with academics at Casa América, in which she was accompanied by the Mexican Ambassador in Madrid, Quirino Ordaz, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs stressed that Europe, and in particular Spain, is a key player in the diversification strategy of Mexican foreign policy, both in its political, cooperation and economic aspects.
