E&OE
18 November 2008, Mexican Foreign Ministry
Joint Press Conference with the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Minister Patricia Espinosa Cantellano
INTRODUCTION: (inaudible)
PATRICIA ESPINOSA CANTELLANO (translated from Spanish): Good morning, I appreciate your presence today at the Ministry. I welcome to Mexico the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Stephen Smith, and the delegation accompanying him. This is Minister Smith’s first visit to Mexico and his first to a Latin American country. We feel very honoured that Minister Smith has chosen our country as the first Latin American country to visit.
This is the second opportunity that I have had to meet with Minister Smith in less than two months. This reflects Mexico and Australia’s priority on strengthening bilateral relations. Our first conversation was held during the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations in September. On that occasion, we agreed to work closely so that the links between both countries would become even stronger.
This morning we shared an excellent working meeting where we revised the priority issues for our relationship, which after 42 years is characterised by a fluid political dialogue and frequent exchange of visits at all levels; inter-parliamentary dialogue, with economic commercial pacts and the interest of the Mexican and Australian private sectors and further knowledge of both by commercial missions.
Due to the dynamism of our education links, we see more Mexican students in Australia every day. We also want to emphasise our desire to increase the numbers and frequency of Australian students coming to Mexico to study.
In the last two years, we have received the visit of Mr. Richard Woolcott, Special Envoy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in October this year, two Deputy Secretaries from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, board members from the Council on Australia-Latin America Relations (COALAR), and legislators. As you will recall, President Felipe Calderón visited Australia in September 2007 to participate in the Fifteenth APEC Leaders’ Summit. In August, the Director-General of Pro México visited Sydney and Melbourne heading a trade mission. Also, in these last two years, officers of the Economy Ministry and the Mexican Congress, visited Australia in June 2007 and January 2008 respectively.
Aside from bilateral issues, we also discussed international issues, for example, disarmament, non-proliferation and climate change. As you know, the President of Mexico has taken a leadership role on this last issue - he proposed a world fund for climate change. This is a matter on which Australia and Mexico broadly share views, as manifested by the signature of the Kyoto Protocol as one of the first actions taken by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and for which we expressed our congratulations from the Government of Mexico to the Government of Australia. We have noted that without a doubt, climate change is one area where we have great potential for cooperation between both countries.
I thanked Minister Smith for Australia’s support for Mexico’s candidacy as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the year 2009-2010 and we have agreed to work together in the United Nations to drive forward common issues and strengthen dialogue, not only in our nation’s capitals but also in our representations before international organisations.
We noted the importance of formalising our mechanisms for consultation and bilateral dialogue, and we agreed that in the near future we will hold a meeting at Deputy Minister/Deputy Secretary level in order to establish a work program. We reiterated our interest in continuing to collaborate in multilateral organisations such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC.
In this vein, during our participation in the 26th Leaders’ Summit in a couple of days’ time, it is planned that President Felipe Calderón and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will meet for the first time. I would like to mention that they have already spoken by telephone regarding Prime Minister Rudd’s initiative on the international financial crisis.
Turning to other matters, we also exchanged perspectives on Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, particularly about the current situation in our respective regions. I referred, and commented to Minister Smith on the progress in the process of integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the fact that recently at the Rio Group Ministerial Summit in Zacatecas, we decided to admit Cuba as a full member. Mr Smith and I agreed to strengthen the dialogue between the Rio Group and Australia. We discussed the first meeting of Heads of State at the Pacific Arc Forum which took place in El Salvador during the Ibero-American Summit.
We also exchanged views about the international financial situation and the extraordinary meeting of the G-20 which took place in Washington recently. We reinforced our wish to maintain a close dialogue and maintain continuity in the efforts to confront the economic crisis.
Finally, I then reiterated once again, Mexico’s interest in continuing to invigorate our links with Australia. The meeting we held today and the one that President Calderon and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have in Lima will be opportunities to reinforce our ties. We also expressed to Minister Smith our wish that this visit, which is his first visit to Mexico, will not be his last, and that we will have the privilege of receiving him on a regular basis. Thank you.
STEPHEN SMITH: Foreign Minister, thank you very much for that very warm welcome, thank you for the enjoyable and productive meeting that we just had, the second within a short period of time. Can I say how pleased I am to be in Mexico, the first visit by a member of the new Australian Government to Mexico and my first visit as Foreign Minister to not just Mexico but to Latin America.
Can I start Minister, on behalf of the Australian Government and the Australian people, by expressing our deepest condolences on the recent death of your Interior Minister. I know that today is a condolence day for him, so on behalf of the Australian people if I can express our deepest sympathy to his family and to the Mexican people and the Government for his recent passing.
Australia has a very good relationship with Mexico. We’ve worked very well together bilaterally and very well together in regional and international forums. Both Australia and Mexico believe that we can take this relationship to an even better level. And the new Australian Government wants very much to enhance its relationship and engagement with Mexico in particular and Latin America in general. That is why I’m very pleased to be here.
Our relationship traverses trade and investment issues, good people to people contacts and importantly a growing relationship so far as education is concerned to growing numbers of Mexican students studying in Australia, and opportunities for young Australians to study in Mexico are also growing.
Later this morning I will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mexican Minister for Public Education to reflect the growing educational exchanges between Australia and Mexico.
In addition to our bilateral relationship, which we want to enhance, we’ve also agreed that it is important for Australia and Mexico to work together regionally and internationally. And Australia is particularly interested in becoming more closely associated to some of the Latin American regional institutions and the Minister has referred to the workings of the Rio Group.
We also work very well together internationally, we are committed activists within the United Nations, we are committed multilateralists and we very much congratulate Mexico on its election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. Australia looks forward very much to working closely with Mexico during the Mexico’s term on the Security Council. We also work very closely historically in non-proliferation and disarmament matters and we’re very pleased that recently Australia, together with Japan, has established International Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation Commission and that a former president of Mexico became a Commissioner of that Commission.
We also spoke about some of the great challenges facing the international community and how closely Australia and Mexico have been working facing those challenges. Our Prime Minister and your President work closely together in the G20 to confront the global financial crisis. We have a very strong shared view that bringing the Doha Round to a successful conclusion is very important and also sharing the view that this is not a time to retreat to protectionism. We’ve worked closely in the WTO together, we’ve worked closely in trade matters and we’ve worked closely in APEC as both the Minister and I travel to Lima later today and the Prime Minister and the President will meet in Lima and work closely at the latest meeting in APEC. So the relationship we have is historically a good one.
The Minister and I have a belief that we can do even more and take that to a higher level. We’ve charged our officials with having senior officials meetings to effectively prepare a plan of action to ensure that the things that we can do bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally are enhanced.
So Minister, thank you very much for your warm welcome and your hospitality. Australia looks very much forward to working closely with Mexico on the great challenges that we face. I certainly look forward to returning to Mexico again. I very much look forward to your visit to Australia, just as we very much look forward to a visit by your President to Australia in the not too distant future. Thank you.
ESPINOSA: Thank you.
JOURNALIST (translated from Spanish): Good morning Minister Espinosa, I would like to ask about the commitment assumed by Argentina, Brazil and Mexico at the Foreign Ministers’ Rio Group meeting in Zacatecas to not reduce financing to Latin American countries as a consequence of the financial crisis. Which were the results on this and from your perspective, which were the most important achievements at the G-20 summit in Washington?
ESPINOSA (translated from Spanish):Yes, of course, and perhaps Minister Smith could also comment on Australia’s perspective on the results of the G-20 Summit. Briefly, on the topic of the need to avoid constraints in the flow of financing to developing countries, this was a topic that was reflected in the document signed by G-20 leaders. There was full agreement on the importance of this to avoid a deepening of the recession which would make it that much more difficult to overcome. Work will need to be done on specific mechanisms to achieve this, but yes there was agreement with regard to this.
I would say that the main result of this meeting, that no doubt will be the beginning of a process of reflection and dialogue by the international community, is that in the first instance, the sense that it is urgent to take measures; an agreement about the areas that need to be approached, one of them being the issue of avoiding the closure of financing sources. Another area is to work on supervision schemes of financial institutions. Another important topic has to do with international commerce; the need to avoid recurring to protectionist measures was firmly outlined, as protectionism would only deepen this crisis. Areas where work must continue were defined, and there was a clear political expression with regard to the need for the international community to face this challenge as a whole.
SMITH: Thank you Minister. Australia firstly strongly supports the use of the G-20 to address the global financial crisis and Australia in the run-up to the meeting in Washington very strongly believes that the G-20 is the correct vehicle to address the crisis. A mix of developed and developing economies North and South, East and West, and importantly containing both Mexico and Australia.
Australia strongly supports the actions taken by the G-20. We do believe that greater prudential and regulatory requirements are necessary and we strongly believe that this is not a time to retreat to protectionism. Openness, access to markets, can only enhance our international economies. We also very strongly support the counter-cyclical fiscal stimulus and again, Mexico and Australia’s responses have been compatible, both initiating $10 billion domestic stimulus packages. So we warmly welcome the choice of the G-20 as the international institution to address the process and we strongly support the communiqué.
It’s worth reflecting that in the last financial crisis we saw, the Asian financial crisis, we saw the creation of the G-20 and the creation of the financial stability forum. Both these institutions have proven to be very valuable in the global response to the current financial crisis. And we will look forward to Finance Ministers and Leaders meeting again in March and April of next year. We also look forward to the prospect of the G-20 being used [as] an international institution to address other key global challenges.
JOURNALIST (translated from Spanish): I have a question for each of the Ministers. For the Australian Minister: I would like to know if you could explain a little bit about the way in which the financial crisis has affected Australia. Hmm, again, I would like to know if you could explain a little bit, how has the financial crisis affected Australia, I mean, to what extent has this financial crisis affected your country. It has been noted that that the world’s economic situation is a model of the failure of neo-liberalism. I would like your opinion with regard to this. For Minister Espinosa, on a different topic, I would like to ask if there is an agreement with the United States on the topic you mentioned during the statement on the destination of the equipment for Plan Mérida? Is there an agreement? Finally, will Mexico keep the aforementioned equipment after the Plan is finalised or (inaudible) on this matter? Thank you.
SMITH: So far as to the adverse impact on Australia’s economy has been concerned, Australia has had a very strong financial services sector, regulation and very strong prudential regulatory requirements for our financial institutions. And our financial institutions have not been caught up in the sub-prime mortgage issues and so the immediate domestic impact in Australia was quite sheltered.
As it became clear that the adverse consequences globally were much worse than we had initially expected, Australia started to suffer some adverse consequences. Firstly, our estimates of economic growth are lower than they were previously. We still expect to be in positive economic growth, but at a lower rate. Secondly, our trading partners, their estimates of economic growth and their capacity to receive imports from Australia has been reduced, so our capacity for exports has suffered to some extent.
Importantly, because in our last budget in May of this year we had a substantial surplus we were able to institute immediately a fiscal stimulus to offset the lower and slower domestic and international economic growth and that fiscal stimulus package commences in early December.
So overall, our expectation is that the adverse consequences will be lower economic growth internationally, lower economic growth for Australia. We’ve seen our currency fall by a considerable amount, but we hope that because of the international community’s response and our domestic fiscal package we will continue to see positive economic growth.
Australia is better placed now than it was or has been in the past and that is largely because in the last two decades our economy has diversified, with trade to China, growing trade to India and trade to the ASEAN economies. This has provided much more diversity to the economy, and with continued strong estimates of economic growth in China, we hope that the diversification of our trade and we continue positive economic growth but at a lower rate than we were expecting or anticipating in advance of the financial crisis.
ESPINOSA (in English): Thank you Minister.
ESPINOSA (translated from Spanish):Regarding the Mérida Initiative, we are concluding the negotiation of the first letters of understanding that will lay the groundwork for the document to formalise the transfer to the first pieces of equipment. I really hope that this can occur this very week. We will make the content of this document public as well as a joint declaration explaining exactly how the transfer of resources will be made to Mexico. As mentioned, different sources of financing exist that require that the method of transfer to Mexico is made through various documents. This is about to occur and when it does, we will have the opportunity of discussing the project in detail.
JOURNALIST: Good morning, for both Ministers, I would like to know if the conclusions drawn at the Summit in Washington will be taken by you or other members to the APEC Summit and if they will pushed further in Lima? Thank you.
ESPINOSA (translated from Spanish): Yes, without doubt this is one of the issues that we talked about today with the Australian Foreign Minister and it was also one of the topics that arose in the conversations between President Felipe Calderón and the President of Indonesia.
The importance of these agreements is that these areas are identified as the areas in which we must continue working in order to control the crisis, and being able to emerge from this period of economic stagnation will also be promoted at APEC. I also believe that it is a natural process and that all leaders are very worried and concentrated on precisely this topic and naturally it will arise.
I want to mention another aspect that I haven’t brought up in a while, that was widely commented on and refers to the need to reform multilateral financial institutions to the effect that they will allow a greater participation of emerging countries and other developing countries.
ESPINOSA (in English): Minister, would you like to comment on this?
SMITH: Thank you Minister. Yes, Australia will very strongly take the G-20 decisions to APEC. APEC is of course, the premier trade and investment economic regional architectural for the Pacific and of the twenty-one economies in APEC there are seven or eight G-20 members, so there is significant number of the G-20 who also are members of APEC. I think this will see a natural follow-on effect of G-20 to APEC especially given, APEC’s premier trade and investment role.
JOURNALIST: I have three questions, one for Minister Espinosa, two for Minister Smith. For Minister Espinosa, the first question relates to the accident of the Minister of Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño. I would like to ask if, as head of foreign affairs and as one of the most important members of the cabinet, you have ever flown on private flights or on flights flown by contractors, or if you have always flown on aircraft operated by the Presidential Security Office? I ask this because, due to the deficiencies that have been detected, a Minister of the cabinet’s transportation has been outsourced to private companies. It would be worthwhile knowing what happens with you, being the most important person in foreign policy matters.
And to the Minister I would have two questions. My first question would be, both Mexico and Australia are part of the APEC’s counter-terrorism task force and as partners against organised crime, what’s your take on Mexico’s war against the drug cartels. And secondly, as passing drug shipments to the Continental US has become harder, Mexican drug cartels have diversified into Europe and recently the DEA noted that into even Hawaii, have you noticed any drug Mexican cartel activity in the Southern Pacific. Thank you.
SMITH: Firstly, I won’t comment on what Mexico does domestically or internally, of course it is a matter for Mexico. What I can say is that as in so many areas Mexico and Australia work very closely in APEC including in the counter-terrorism, transnational crime areas. So far as the Pacific is concerned, Australia of course is a member of the Pacific Island Forum. There are many fragile nation-states in the Pacific and their peace and security is very important. The Pacific Island Forum itself works very hard to ensure minimisation of organised crime activity in the Pacific islands. I haven’t been made aware or noticed any particular Mexican cartel activity in the South Pacific.
ESPINOSA (translated from Spanish):With regard to the topic you mentioned, as you know, all information related to the travel I undertake as Head of the Ministry is publicly available. We do not have an aeroplane; therefore I generally travel on commercial flights when I go on missions where I represent our country. When I have the opportunity to travel with the President, of course we travel on the presidential aeroplane. There are times that due to scheduling, time and connection issues, we receive the generous assistance of the Presidential Security Office, which provides me with an aircraft to travel with the delegation. This is done especially to avoid having to travel to various places in a short timeframe, as was the case during our trip to Paraguay for the Presidential handover and immediately, on the next day, to the Presidential handover in the Dominican Republic.
[Ends]
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