Sao Paulo: Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Thursday agreed with his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, to further strengthen exchanges between their countries as this year marks the 135th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.

The two ministers reached the agreement when they held a meeting in Mexico.

In 1888, Japan established diplomatic relations with Mexico by concluding the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, Japan’s first equal treaty with a non-Asian country.

Hayashi said at the meeting with Ebrard that Japan wants to work closely together with Mexico to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific, calling the Latin American country a “strategic global partner.”

The two ministers confirmed that their countries will cooperate to maintain the high standards of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal after some countries filed applications to join the accord. Japan and Mexico are among the signatories to the TPP.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Hayashi expressed his expectations that Mexico will ensure legal stability, particularly in the energy sector, after Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Co. was ordered by Mexican customs authorities to pay some 75.9 billion yen over the transfer of a subsidiary that invested in a thermal power generation project in Mexico.

In response, Ebrard said that Mexico will continue to address the issue while taking into account the interest of Japan, its important partner.

Mexico is the first leg of Hayashi’s tour of four Latin American countries and the United States.

JIJI Press