1. During his visit to Australia for the eighth MIKTA Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met bilaterally with Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto de Icaza Gonzales of Mexico on November 25, during which the two sides exchanged views on major issues between the Republic of Korea and Mexico as well as other matters of mutual concern.

2. The two sides noted with appreciation that their two countries have been seeing their substantive cooperation grow in a mutually beneficial manner in various sectors since forging “strategic partnership” in 2005. They also expressed satisfaction with the smooth progress in the implementation of the full range of follow-up measures after the ROK President’s visit to Mexico in April 2016.

° In particular, the two sides, in view of the need to resume negotiations on a bilateral FTA as soon as possible in a bid to step up their economic and trade cooperation, agreed to work closely together to move relevant consultations forward.

3. Minister Yun asked the Mexican government to pay close attention to the ROK nationals held in Mexico over the “W case” and to cooperate for their early release after prompt and fair trials. Undersecretary de Icaza, calling it a judicial matter, mentioned that utmost efforts will nevertheless be made for the trials to move smoothly forward and for the case to be resolved in a prompt manner.

4. The two sides noted with appreciation that the ROK and Mexico are spearheading middle power diplomacy mainly through MIKTA, which has established itself as a major consultative mechanism among middle power countries. They agreed to work more closely together for MIKTA to play a bigger role and serve more functions.


* unofficial translation