Comment by the Information and Press Department on Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray Caso’s visit to Russia
On November 17, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States Luis Videgaray Caso, who will be visiting the Russian Federation between November 16-17.
The upcoming talks will focus on foreign policy cooperation. The ministers will coordinate approaches to various international matters to further strengthen bilateral cooperation at international venues.
The parties will discuss how to build up and diversify their trade, economic and investment ties, including what is based on the agreements reached during Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov’s visit to Mexico in October of this year, when he attended the Business Summit in San Luis Potosi. Russia and Mexico regard expansion of the pattern of mutual trade by adding high value-added goods and hi-tech products plus the implementation of joint long-term projects, including in the area of oil exploration and production, as good prospective opportunities for addressing this task.
The ministers will consider opportunities for intensifying cultural and humanitarian cooperation, including the resumption of work by the Russian- Mexican Mixed Commission on Cultural Cooperation, chaired, on the Russian side, by Special Presidential Representative Mikhail Shvydkoi. The commission is due to draft applied programmes of exchanges in the area of culture, education and sports, including with account taken of the Mexican team’s participation in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
The meeting of both countries’ foreign ministers is a result of advances in their bilateral trust-based political dialogue incentivised by President Vladimir Putin’s talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, China, held between September 3-5 of this year.
On December 11, the two countries will mark the 127th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Twenty years ago, they signed the Declaration on Principles of Relations and Cooperation between Russia and Mexico of January 28, 1997.
Immune to political influences, bilateral cooperation between Russia and Mexico is of mutually beneficial and stable nature and is traditionally based on mutual respect as well as equal consideration for each other’s interests.
Internationally, Russia and Mexico consistently advocate the formation of a democratic and just world order based on the principles of equality and mutual respect. They also work for the strengthening of the central role of the United Nations in international affairs, international peace and security. The two countries constructively cooperate in various international formats, including the UN, G20 and APEC.
Our countries hold a consonant position on many global problems. Mexico has supported and co-authored a number of Russian resolutions at the UN, including on peaceful uses of outer space, international information security, road traffic safety, as well as the prevention of the glorification of Nazism.
Mr Luis Videgaray Caso’s visit fits into our country’s course for intensifying interaction with the Latin American and Caribbean region. Russia consistently promotes cooperation with regional integration associations, of which Mexico is a member, including CELAC, and is interested in the establishment of cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and the Pacific Alliance.
There exist firm economic ties between Russia and Mexico. Mexico ranks second (after Brazil) among Russia’s trade and economic partners in Latin America (trade between them amounted to $1.7 billion in 2016). According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, Russian-Mexican trade grew 53.4 per cent to $1.58 billion between January and August 2017 as compared with the same period last year. Investment and infrastructure projects in the area of the food industry and manufacture of automobile parts have been developing. Mexico’s Interjet airline successfully operates Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft.
The Russia-Mexico Mixed Commission on Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technological Cooperation and Maritime Navigation (IGC) is in operation. Its sixth meeting is scheduled for the first half of 2018.
We hope that the Russian-Mexican talks will convey added dynamics to the entire complex of bilateral cooperation, including the political dialogue and versatile cooperation in practical fields, and that they will facilitate coordination between our countries on the international arena.