MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico, Chile agree to boost bilateral cooperation

Peru's President Pedro Castillo was not allowed to travel to Mexico City but will be in Santiago to meet with Boric

Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico and Gabriel Boric Font of Chile Wednesday agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in education, economic and environmental matters.

In a meeting held in Mexico City in lieu of what would have been a Pacific Alliance Summit that was called off after Peru's Congress denied President Pedro Castillo Terrones clearance to leave his country.

“Our objective is to deepen the alliance between Mexico and Chile,” Boric told journalists in a post-meeting conference as Chile and Mexico proposed to strengthen the Strategic

Association Agreement in force since 2006.

On economic matters, the leaders “welcomed the joint initiatives being developed through mechanisms such as the Pacific Alliance and their adherence to the Global Agreement on Trade and Gender,” according to a joint statement.

Boric and López Obrador also discussed the possibility of exploring technologies linked to lithium.

AMLO also accepted Boric's invitation to attend the ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary next year of the coup d'état against Salvador Allende.

The Mexican President also lashed out at the Peruvian lawmakers: ”It is an act of humiliation (...) it is a lot of arrogance not to give permission to a legal president, legitimately constituted, to attend a formal meeting in another country,“ he stressed.

Boric confirmed that next week he will welcome Castillo in Santiago and vowed to discuss the future of the Pacific Alliance on that occasion. Peru's Congress did authorize Castillo's trip to Chile.

AMLO and Boric also discussed the election of Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn as president of the Interamerican Development Bank, a position for which López Obrador had proposed leftist economist Gerardo Esquivel.

”If we had had a deeper dialogue, it would have been easier to reach an agreement with the IDB,“ Boric argued. He also admitted that they had failed to agree on a common candidate among Chile, Mexico, and Argentina.

In addition to López Obrador's candidate, Chile launched former Finance Minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre''s bid, while Argentina would have preferred Secretary of International Economic Relations Cecilia Todesca.

Boric also recognized that it was difficult to evaluate how the IDB events will play out on the region's dynamics, ”because bilateral relations have to be thought of in the long term.”