Thursday, Mar 28th 2024
Trending News

Mexico and India hold 7th Joint Commission Meeting

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 26, Jun 2017, 15:15 pm IST | UPDATED: 30, Jun 2017, 19:43 pm IST

Mexico and India hold 7th Joint Commission Meeting Mexico City: The countries coordinated positions and collaboration schemes on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues, as well as trade, disarmament, energy and space cooperation.

The 7th Meeting of the Mexico-India Joint Commission (JCM) and 4th round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) were held in Mexico City on June 23rd, 2017. The meeting was co-chaired by Ambassador Carlos de Icaza, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and by Ms. Preeti Saran, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, and head of the Indian delegation.

Both the Joint Commission and the Foreign Office Consultations aim to continue the excellent level of bilateral dialogue as well as to increase economic and cooperation exchanges. Both countries have a firm commitment to elevate the Privileged Partnership, established in 2007, to a strategic level, in compliance with the agreements reached between President Enrique Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s work visit to Mexico on 8 June 2016.

During the 4th Foreign Office Consultations, the participants reviewed the entire gamut of issues in the bilateral relation, including fruitful exchanges on regional affairs, while reaffirming the importance of the continuity of high level visits and interparliamentary dialogue to maintain the excellent level of political ties.

Multilateral consultations, co-chaired by the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, Ambassador Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, and Secretary Saran were celebrated to discuss the main issues on the international agenda, including a special meeting on disarmament, headed from the Indian side by Mr. Pankaj Sharma, Joint Secretary (D&ISA), Ministry of External Affairs. Both sides expressed their continued commitment to strengthen global non-proliferation efforts. It is noteworthy that during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Mexico in June 2016, President Enrique Peña Nieto expressed the support of Mexico for India’s entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The Joint Commission included a session of the Subcommittee on Economic and Trade Cooperation, which comprised a wide variety of subjects, including trade, investment cooperation, services, innovation, ease of doing business, SMEs and intellectual property.

Mexico is India's first trading partner and recipient of investments in Latin America and the first Latin American investor in India. More than a hundred companies with Indian capital operate in Mexico, mainly in the field of the metal industry, information and communication technologies, and the pharmaceutical sector. The accumulated Indian investment in Mexico between 1999 and March 2017 exceeds 100 million dollars. India is Mexico's sixth largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region and 12th in the world, with trade of more than $ 6.34 billion. Since 2014, India has been an observer of the Pacific Alliance.

The Joint Commission also included a meeting of the Working Group on space cooperation and, for the first time, one on energy cooperation. ISRO and the Mexican Space Agency have been working closely together since their MoU was signed in 2014. Within the framework of the JCM, they held a meeting of the Working Group on Space Cooperation, in which they reiterated their commitment to shared objectives. On energy matters, both countries agreed to make efforts to take the cooperation further as per the MoU on New and Renewable Energy signed between the two countries in April, 2008, and to explore ways and means to boost solar energy cooperation.