The first meeting of the Mexico-Ethiopia Consultation Mechanism
Mexico and Ethiopia held the first meeting of their Consultation Mechanism on Matters of Common Interest on Tuesday last week (October 18). The meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City was co-chaired by Mexico’s Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Carlos de Icaza, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie. Ambassador Taye was on a two day working visit to Mexico. Mexico’s Director General for the United Nations Organization, Ambassador Joel Antonio Hernández García, also participated in the meeting at which issues of bilateral relations covering political cooperation as well as economic and trade links were discussed.
Both sides underlined the long historic ties of friendship between the two countries. They also identified new opportunities for collaboration in investment and business and agreed on the importance of raising their level of bilateral political dialogue through an exchange of visits by senior officials and the holding of meetings at international fora. Other issues discussed covered regional and multilateral agendas and Ambassador Taye briefed the meeting on Ethiopia’s priorities as a nonpermanent member of the Security Council of the UN. Ethiopia takes up its position on the Security Council on January 1 for two years.
During his visit, Ambassador Taye also met with officials from various Directorates-General of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID). He discussed specific issues of technical-scientific interest as well as possibilities of educational, cultural and tourism cooperation. In a meeting with the head of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, Dra Alma Rendon Eunice Cardenas, Ambassador Taye exchanged information on the policies of both governments towards their respective Diaspora communities.
During his stay in Mexico, Ambassador Taye also met with officials of the Mexican Ministry of Culture, the National Institute of Anthropology and History and ProMéxico. He also visited Ethiopia Station in the Mexico City Metro, where there is a plaque commemorating the historic ties of friendship between the two peoples. Ethiopia was the first state in Africa with which Mexico established diplomatic relations on November 1st 1949.
Mexican officials noted that Ethiopia’s economy has shown accelerated growth in recent years, 8.7% in 2016 according to figures from the African Development Bank, and is an important promoter of peace and regional security, standing first as a contributor of military and police operations for UN peacekeeping as well as hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa.
