Mexico, India agree to upgrade relations to ‘strategic partnership’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Mexico City for a working visit during which he agreed with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to raise the level of bilateral relations between the two countries from ‘privileged’ to ‘strategic partnership’.

Foreign Ministry Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu and a delegation of Mexican officials welcomed Modi on Wednesday afternoon at the Presidential Hangar in Mexico’s International Airport.

Later, the Indian prime minister met with Pena Nieto in the presidential residence of Los Pinos after which both leaders made a joint statement to the media.

“We have agreed to raise the level of relations that our countries have today in what is called a privileged partnership to upgrade to one that is a strategic partnership,” said Pena Nieto.

They also agreed “to have greater cooperation in the aerospace sector, one of the industries and sectors in which our country is having a significant growth and in which India is also a great power and a world leader,” Pena Nieto added.

“We have agreed that meetings between officials of the Indian and Mexican governments will take place at the Meeting of the High Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation, and the Binational Commission during the course of this year precisely to deepen this shared vision we have had,” he said.

Modi, meanwhile, said Mexico was the first Latin American country to recognize India in 1950, “and since then we have had such profound ties and this has shown increasing intensity.”

He said that in 2007, for example, both nations established a privileged partnership. “We are now trying to go beyond a buyerseller relationship,” he added.

“The president and I agreed to seek ways to deepen our cooperation in aerospace issues, in science and in technology as well. We will also launch concrete projects in areas such as agriculture, agricultural research, biotechnology and waste management, management of natural disasters and solar energy,” he explained.

Finally, he thanked Pena Nieto for the warm welcome and said he expected the Mexican president to pay a visit to India “at the nearest possible opportunity.”

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Modi’s visit was aimed at continuing “the dialogue held by the two leaders on the margins of the 70th regular session of the United Nations General Assembly on 28th September 2015.”