MEXICO AND KOREA AGREE TO EXPAND BILATERAL AND TRILATERAL COOPERATION

• The seventh meeting of the Joint Commission comes to an end.

The seventh meeting of the Mexico-Korea Joint Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held in Mexico City today. It was chaired by the Executive Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Mexican Agency for International Cooperation, Ambassador Rogelio Granguillhome, and the Korean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Lee Si-Hyung.

Both delegations agreed that the bilateral relationship has become stronger over the last ten years, as can be seen in the steadily increasing bilateral trade. They highlighted the export sectors of each country, and the Korean Deputy Trade Minister expressed a desire to have more Mexicans invest in Korea.

The potential of both countries as regards international aid was discussed, and both sides agreed to expand bilateral and triangular cooperation with third countries. AMEXCID and KOICA will create a working group in 2013 to find specific areas of cooperation and priority countries to include in the memorandum of understanding they intend to sign.

The Korean Deputy Minister mentioned that, as members of the G20, the two countries have a broad understanding on cooperation.

In science and technology, the parties expressed their interest in continuing to work on a Memorandum of Understanding for scientific research between CONACYT and the Korean National Research Foundation (NRF), which will hopefully be signed in early 2013.

Both sides agreed to hold a seminar with researchers to find areas and ways to strengthen cooperation in science, technology and innovation.

The two countries agreed to continue working on customs cooperation. The Mexican delegation expressed interest in conducting training courses to raise awareness of existing regulations in both countries.

The Korean delegation reiterated its government's interest in starting negotiations on a free trade agreement between the two countries.

The delegations agreed hold the next meeting of the Joint Commission in Korea in 2013.