Albares agrees in Mexico to "accelerate the relationship" with Spain instead of pausing it

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, greets the Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard this Wednesday in Mexico City. José Méndez (EFE)

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his Mexican counterpart, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, have agreed this Wednesday to “accelerate the relationship” between the two countries instead of taking a break, as Andrés Manuel López Obrador requested a month ago .

The president of Mexico has insisted today on this idea of ​​putting in the background the ties, especially economic, with Madrid and he has done it just when Albares had just started an official trip with the purpose of reducing tensions and normalizing the relationship after a long period of disagreements.

The minister, however, has maintained his agenda, meeting with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, with the president of the Senate, Olga Sánchez Cordero, and finally with Ebrard, one of the strong men of the López Obrador government.

It is a staging of the beginning of the closing of the wounds that is reflected in the joint declaration, which highlights "the solidity of the legal and institutional framework between both countries and the convenience of developing its full potential, as a reflection of the solid friendship between the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic and that is expressed in dialogue and cooperation between economic, cultural, academic, scientific, artistic actors and local authorities, among others”.

“We have broken down all the measures that we are going to take to continue accelerating the relationship between Spain and Mexico, which on the other hand does not need any acceleration because it already has an enormous density,” Albares added in statements to journalists, who prioritized this trip to despite the invasion ordered two weeks ago by Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine.

The Kremlin's aggression was one of the topics discussed at the meeting, as was Europe's energy policy and the role that oil and gas producing countries such as Mexico can play.

The representatives of the two Executives have signed four political, cultural, scientific and feminist cooperation agreements, but the most significant thing has been the coincidence of both in reactivating the so-called Binational Commission "as soon as possible", a space for diplomatic collaboration created in 1977 that brought together several ministers and that has not been held since López Obrador took office.

“I want to thank the warmth with which [Ebrard] has received me and how we have been able to review bilateral relations, Ibero-American relations and also European relations, where I have guaranteed that Spain will continue to be the strongest defender of the global agreement between the European Union and Mexico, that it is mutually beneficial for both of us and that if you need our help at any specific point, all you have to do is tell us”, said Albares.

The minister also greeted the new ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, a veteran PRI politician who received approval at the end of January after a long wait.

Economic and commercial relations, precisely those that the Mexican president has tried to question due to what he considers "abuses" committed in the past, are one of the axes of Albares' visit.

The minister has met with Spanish businessmen and Mexican investors.

“We have exchanged on how this flow of investment and companies is mutually beneficial, 7,000 Spanish companies that directly employ 300,000 Mexicans and indirect employment to a million, and 500 Mexican companies in Spain that directly employ 20,000 Spaniards”, he highlighted.

Spain is the main investor in Mexico after the United States and Mexico is the sixth investor in Spain.

These balances are going through a delicate moment due to some political decisions by López Obrador, such as the electrical reform that grants a state company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), most of the market.

That legal change, in any case, is still up in the air because it requires a revision of the Constitution for which the government coalition does not have a sufficient majority.

So for now, and despite all the tensions, Albares has chosen to highlight the fluidity of the bilateral agenda.

"I don't know very well what pause means, in any case, what my visit today does is accelerate that relationship, which is nothing new, it has been accelerating for many years," he told the questioner about it and after insist:

Ebrard has also stressed that harmony between the two countries, describing the link with Spain as "very important" before having lunch with his counterpart, who, above all, wanted to avoid further diplomatic clashes.

“It is a real pleasure for me to be here in Mexico, in a country where a Spaniard never feels like a foreigner, just as I hope that no Mexican ever feels like a foreigner in Spain”, Albares summed up.

subscribe here

to the

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country