The Diplomat
The Senate hosted yesterday the XVI Spain-Mexico Interparliamentary Meeting, in the course of which it was confirmed that next December 15 will be held in Mexico the XIII Meeting of the Binational Commission, the main regular framework of bilateral relations.
The meeting was inaugurated by the President of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet; the President of the Senate, Ander Gil; the President of the Political Coordination Board of the Mexican Senate, Ricardo Monreal; and the President of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, Santiago Creel. Following the opening ceremony, four working sessions were held on economic and trade cooperation, cooperation in equality, education, health and culture, cooperation in combating climate change, and security and strengthening the rule of law.
Likewise, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met with the Mexican parliamentary delegation that participated in the XVI Spain-Mexico Interparliamentary Meeting. “We continue to strengthen relations between our two brotherly countries at all levels,” Albares stated through his Twitter account. “Preparing the Binational Commission,” he added.
Precisely, Mexican Senator Ricardo Monreal informed during the meeting that next December 15, the XIII Meeting of the Mexico-Spain Binational Commission will be held in Mexico. In his speech, Monreal affirmed that the time has come to overcome the historical “misunderstandings” between the two countries and urged to explore “the possibilities to make our nations more prosperous and sustainable”. For his part, Santiago Creel affirmed that Europe is a “strategic ally” and highlighted the importance of the Spanish Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023.
The Binational Commission has not met since 2017 and the thirteenth edition was scheduled for 2020, but was not possible because of the pandemic. Under the 1990 General Treaty of Cooperation and Friendship between Spain and Mexico, the Commission is held biannually and alternately in one of the two countries.
On October 19, the State Secretary for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, and the Mexican Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carmen Moreno Toscano, discussed in Madrid the issues that could be dealt with at the Binational Commission. The meeting was held within the framework of the Permanent Bilateral Political Sub-Commission, created last March after Albares’ visit to Mexico to try to channel relations between the two countries after a period of disagreements motivated by the verbal attacks of the Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Spain and its companies. Mexican diplomatic sources told The Diplomat that day that the initial date for the Binational Commission was, precisely, December 15.
