Official Visit to the Russian Federation by Patricia Espinosa Cantellano

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States, Patricia Espinosa, made an official visit to the Russian Federation from June 25-29 at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov.During their talks at the foreign ministry premises, which passed in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding, the parties examined the state of and prospects for Russian-Mexican relations, and exchanged views on a wide range of pressing international and regional issues.Lavrov and Espinosa confirmed the similarity of Russia and Mexico’s positions on a number of key international issues and expressed their mutual commitment to efforts aimed at bolstering international security and stability. They stressed the central role of the UN and its Security Council as a universal instrument for maintaining peace and resolving conflicts. The heads of the foreign ministries expressed their intention to continue to cooperate closely in multilateral settings, attaching special importance to collaboration within the UN, the Group of Twenty, and APEC.
Much attention was devoted to strengthening Russian-Mexican economic and trade ties. In this context, Lavrov and Espinosa noted with satisfaction the tendency for growth in mutual trade and the existence of good opportunities for expanding cooperation in such fields as energy, machine building, metallurgy, agriculture, etc.
During the visit Mexico announced its recognition of the market status of the Russian economy. The Russian side underlined the importance of this step for developing bilateral trade and economic relations.
Among other important topics the talks addressed the question of further development of the traditionally stable and strong Russian-Mexican ties in the scientific, technical, cultural and humanitarian fields.
Patricia Espinosa also had a meeting with Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina.
During the visit, Minister Espinosa visited St. Petersburg where she met with the city’s Vice Governor Mikhail Oseevskiy and discussed prospects for bilateral inter-regional cooperation.
The talks ended with the adoption of a Joint Statement of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the signing of the 2011-2012 Science and Technology Cooperation Program and the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Physical Culture and Sport between Russia’s Ministry of Tourism and Sport and the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport of Mexico.

News source: ISRIA