The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers approved this past Tuesday the signature ad referendum and provisional application of the Complementary Agreement to the Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between Spain and Mexico for the financing of Cooperation Programs and Projects.
On October 14, 1977, the Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Government of the Kingdom of Spain and the Government of the Mexican United States was signed in Madrid, in order to carry out programs and projects of scientific and technical cooperation and to promote the exchange of technical experiences.
That agreement was signed during the State visit of the then President of Mexico, José López Portillo, the first ever visit by a Mexican president to our country. The two countries had resumed diplomatic relations on March 28, 1977. That same October 14, bilateral agreements were also signed on the suppression of visas, economic and commercial cooperation, cultural and educational cooperation and the creation of the Spain-Mexico Joint Intergovernmental Commission.
On January 25, 1996, the Complementary Agreement to the Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and the Mexican United States was signed in Madrid, creating the Mexico-Spain Joint Fund for technical and scientific cooperation, the main bilateral instrument for financing joint cooperation programs and projects in these areas. According to this supplementary agreement, contributions to the Joint Fund are determined annually, within the respective national budgets, and each country contributes (the percentage is fixed) 50% of the total amount.
On March 9, 2022, the Complementary Agreement to the Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Mexican States for the Financing of Cooperation Programs and Projects was signed ad referendum in Mexico (by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares and Marcelo Ebrard), which replaces the 1996 complementary agreement and whose objective is to simplify and make the Mixed Fund more flexible.
The present agreement will be in force for five years, extendable in other five-year periods. For the time being, the Government has agreed to its provisional application. The entry into force of this agreement will allow the execution of the resources provided by AECID, thus avoiding further delays and contributing, with the projects to which they will be allocated, to overcoming some of the development challenges facing Mexican society.
