The 10th Anniversary of China Mexico Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: Breaking Unilateralism and Jointly Pursuing a Win-win Future

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the the Belt and Road Initiative and the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Mexico. Over the past decade, China and Mexico have achieved fruitful cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, and investment. The two countries are also conducting international cooperation under multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations and the G20 to jointly promote the development of multilateralism. Mexico and China have extensive connections in global supply and value chains. In the future, the two countries can further deepen their partnership, jointly resist unilateralism, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the the Belt and Road Initiative. The "the Belt and Road" initiative is an important policy and powerful measure put forward by China to grasp the process of globalization from the perspective of multilateralism. This year also coincides with the tenth anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Mexico. On this occasion, both sides should jointly explore the potential and role of the two countries in promoting their respective and even global development.
China and Mexico are both major countries in their respective regions and supporters of multilateralism. Within the framework of the United Nations, they all promoted the implementation of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States in the 1970s, meeting the demands of most member states for a more just international economic order. At present, the traditional United Nations system is no longer capable of managing economic globalization affairs. In such a global situation, China and Mexico are actively developing their respective multilateral plans to continue promoting the process of globalization.

For example, in 2009, China co founded the BRICS Summit with Russia, Brazil, and India, and joined the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2011. In 2011, Mexico signed the Pacific Agreement with Chile, Colombia and Peru, announced the establishment of the Pacific Alliance, and jointly created the Medium Power Cooperation Association (MIKTA) with Indonesia, South Korea, Türkiye and Australia in 2013. In 2018, Mexico also signed the Comprehensive and Further Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP).

Both China and Mexico advocate for fair development rights for countries that benefit less from globalization. From September 9th to 10th, the G20 Summit was held in New Delhi, India. Chinese Premier Li Qiang pointed out at the meeting that the most urgent issue currently is development, and we should place development issues at the center of macro policy coordination. Similarly, Mexican Minister of Economy Raquel Buenrostra, speaking as a representative of Mexico, emphasized the sovereign right of countries to use their natural resources for development.
Both sides unanimously believe that the G20 should uphold the original intention of unity and cooperation. This is the only way to address global challenges and the need to strengthen the multilateral system. Undoubtedly, these political positions are consistent with one of the main goals of the China Mexico comprehensive strategic partnership, which is to strengthen multilateral coordination based on the common interests and responsibilities of the two countries on major international issues.
China and Mexico have achieved the main goals of a comprehensive strategic partnership. For example, the two countries have maintained the strategic and long-term nature of their relations through bilateral mechanisms such as permanent bilateral committees, bilateral political consultation mechanisms, multilateral thematic bilateral consultation mechanisms, and parliamentary dialogue forums. With the establishment and improvement of these bilateral mechanisms, and the continuous upgrading of bilateral relations due to changes in international trends, political mutual trust between China and Mexico has also been further strengthened. In 2019, China and Mexico signed a roadmap for the comprehensive development of bilateral relations by 2024. From this perspective, it is very noteworthy that China supports Mexico in responding to the political pressure exerted by the United States on the fentanyl issue.
China and Mexico have set the goal of strengthening practical cooperation based on their development strategies, and have achieved trade balance by supporting Mexico in increasing exports to China and creating favorable conditions for Chinese investors. According to the data released by the Mexican government, the bilateral trade volume between China and Mexico will reach 128.7 billion US dollars in 2022, which not only enables Mexico to recover from the setback of the COVID-19 epidemic, but also enables it to obtain new development momentum through economic complementarity. Over the past decade since the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Mexico, Mexico's exports to China have almost doubled, from $6.17 billion in 2013 to $10.7 billion in 2022.
A large part of China's investment in Mexico is related to the recent "nearshore outsourcing" policy of the United States, and the two countries have managed to adjust their bilateral economic relations to cope with the latest unilateralist behavior of the United States. In the first quarter of this year, 100 new Chinese companies came to Mexico and acquired 5 million square meters of industrial warehouses for trade.
As mentioned above, the development process of the China Mexico Comprehensive Strategic Partnership over the past decade has proven that successfully addressing unilateralism is possible. The two countries have formed a joint force in economic and political fields, committed to their own progress and global development, committed to upholding true multilateralism, and committed to maintaining trade and production connections that are conducive to economic globalization. Undoubtedly, the future challenge for China and Mexico is to maintain this win-win cooperation, build on existing achievements, and elevate bilateral relations to new heights.