October 25, 2004
Ottawa, Ontario

Check against delivery

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentleman:

It has been a great honour to welcome you, President Fox, to Canada and to our nation’s capital. It’s also a special pleasure to welcome you, Mrs. Fox, as well as the impressive delegation of ministers, parliamentarians, business leaders and other friends and partners of Canada.

The presence tonight of many distinguished Canadians is testament to our delight at having you as our guests, and a tribute to the importance of Mexico to Canada.

You are our most vital partner in Latin America and we have developed together a mature, diverse, trusting and forward-looking relationship.

From distant neighbours more than a decade ago, we have become during your administration, Mr. President, close and strategic partners in North America, in the hemisphere and in the world.

For too long, indifference and world events hindered the development of our bilateral relations.

Over the years, successive Canadian and Mexican governments gradually sought to engage each other in order to intensify the ties between our countries. Trade and economic relations expanded, and an increasingly dynamic relationship evolved. Under your leadership, President Fox, these trends accelerated and our relationship came to fruition.

Never before were Mexico and Canada so clearly identified as priorities, in each other’s foreign trade and political agenda.

But why is this? Why are our governments investing so much time and effort in developing this bilateral relationship, when we could instead succumb to the temptation to focus solely on that other important bilateral relationship which is, for obvious reasons, the one with our third NAFTA partner?

Why do we now consider each other much more than just the A neighbour of the neighbour?

You will certainly agree with me, Mr. President, that trade is a powerful factor that unites us. Through the North America Free Trade Agreement, now 10 years old, Mexico has become a full and vibrant participant in the North American economy.

It has become Canada’s sixth most important export market and we are Mexico’s second after the USA.

Many will suggest that these figures alone are a sufficient explanation for our growing relationship. But I know it has to do with more than just trade and business.

It has to do with shared objectives and values, which together are helping to foster dialogue and collaboration on national and international policies.

Mexico has made major democratic gains, enjoyed political stability and achieved institutional progress.

You came to power with a clear and ambitious vision for Mexico, and Canada is proud to support your efforts.

In fact, Mr. President, we are cooperating extensively on all six points of your reform agenda for Mexico.

Increasingly, we are establishing with Mexico dynamic and broad collaboration in the multilateral sphere where we are both members of many international organizations – the UN, the OAS, APEC, the OECD, the WTO and the G20 group of countries to name but a few.

We applaud Mexico’s increasingly proactive role in international institutions, including through the UN where Canada and Mexico have worked closely in maintaining a bilateral dialogue on international security, economy and trade, and global challenges.

Beyond our trade and political relations, and at the heart of the Canada-Mexico partnership, are the tremendous person-to-person contacts, human exchanges and bridge building across North America.

Close to a million Canadians travel to Mexico each year for holidays, to do business, to study or to conduct educational and scientific exchanges.

An increasing number of Mexicans are visiting Canada as well.

This is without a doubt where the most important linkages between our countries are created.

Mr. President, all of these factors are bringing our countries and people together.

But I strongly believe that it is also through the leadership of statesmen like yourself that the full potential of the Canada-Mexico strategic partnership can be truly achieved.

Earlier today, in our meetings – quite probably the largest meeting of Canadian and Mexican cabinet ministers ever – we simply have taken stock of the progress made and agreed that it was already a great achievement that should be celebrated.

However, we chose to continue exploring how to expand this relationship in concrete and innovative ways.

I believe it is a clear signal that the Canada-Mexico partnership is no longer a surprising novelty in North America but rather an enduring presence and a fundamental part of the domestic and international agendas of our countries.

This is why I am pleased to welcome you again to Canada, President Fox. And let us raise our glasses to the success of your visit, to the common future of our two countries, Mexico and Canada, And to the close friendship and partnership between the Mexican and Canadian people.

More than 50 years ago, the great Mexican thinker, Octavio Paz, wrote his seminal work describing Mexico as caught in a “Labyrinth of Solitude”.

Today, we can say that modern Mexico is anything but. Mexico today reaches out confidently, and welcomes the world to its shores.

And in this outward-looking confidence, we, as Canadians, see ourselves mirrored and so are drawn to you.

More than neighbours, we are partners and friends. Somos socios. Pero más importante, somos amigos.

Viva Mexico ! Viva Canada !