Mexico, India include mining, agriculture in talks

Mexico City, April 18 (IANS/EFE) Mexico and India broadened the scope of their "privileged association" established in 2007 to include agriculture and mining, the two governments said upon the conclusion of the fifth meeting of the Mexico-India Binational Commission here.

At the closing of the conference, Mexican Deputy Foreign Secretary Lourdes Aranda said that the two delegations agreed "to give a broader scope to the links between the two two countries through more frequent meetings both on the bilateral level as well as in multilateral forums".

She said that the conference included meetings of the subcommittees on political affairs, economic and trade matters and technical and scientific cooperation, as well as the working groups on education and culture and cultural matters.

Aranda added that the informal groups on mining and agriculture also met for the first time.

The delegations agreed that the High Level Group on Economic and Trade Cooperation would meet soon in New Delhi "where it will seek to intensify exchanges in all areas, but especially in agriculture, mining and renewable energy sources", Aranda said.

"For Mexico, as part of its strategy of insertion and positioning in Asia, the relationship with India constitutes a priority, given that India is one of the central actors in the ... international order of the 21st century," she said.

The Indian foreign ministry's secretary (West), Madhusudan Ganapathi, confirmed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Mexico in June to participate in the G20 summit in Los Cabos.

Regarding the new working groups on agriculture and mining, he acknowledged that cooperation in those areas is still in the initial stages, but he added that the countries are seeking to establish closer links "to the benefit of both parties".

--IANS/EFE

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