1. Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho will meet with Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States Julian Ventura at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 22. In the meeting, the Vice Minister and the Undersecretary will exchange views on high-level exchanges, trade, investment and development cooperation, as well as MIKTA diplomacy and the situations on the Korean Peninsula and in Latin America; and discuss ways that the two countries can work more closely together.

2. In the meeting, Vice Minister Lee will take note of the fact that since the establishment of strategic partnership between the ROK and Mexico, the first Latin American country that the former has forged such partnership with (2005), the two countries have been maintaining their cooperative relations at the best level. He will go on to ask the new Mexican government, launched in December 2018, to step up high-level exchanges and substantive cooperation with the ROK in a bid to further deepen and advance the already-close bilateral ties.

3. The two countries, main members of MIKTA and like-minded members of multilateral consultative mechanisms, including the G20, the OECD and APEC, plan to explore ways to work more closely together on the international stage in addressing global issues.

4. Vice Minister Lee will underscore the need to bolster cooperation on trade and investment in order for the economies of the two countries to grow together in the rapidly changing trade environment of the global community; and ask the government of Mexico, a main member of the Pacific Alliance, to support the ROK’s bid to become its associate member, which, when successful, is expected to lead to the conclusion of an ROK-Mexico FTA.

5. Vice Minister Lee will extend appreciation to the Mexican government for its consistent support for the ROK government’s policy toward the Korean Peninsula; explain the current situation on the Korean Peninsula; and discuss with the Mexican delegation ways to further enhance cooperation between the governments of the two countries toward the denuclearization and establishment of a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

6. The forthcoming first high-level meeting between the two countries since the inauguration of the new Mexican government is expected to help confirm areas of mutual interest and potential sectors for cooperation and pave the way for future cooperation.

* unofficial translation