Joint Declaration by Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and President Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico

London, March 2009

During his State Visit to the United Kingdom, President Calderón and Prime Minister Brown held talks in London on bilateral relations and international issues. After their meeting, they issued the following Joint Declaration:

Mexico and the United Kingdom in the World

Financial Crisis

In order to address the global challenges facing us today, Mexico and the United Kingdom will co-operate on international institutional reform, including the UN, the international environmental regime, and global economic governance. In the coming days, we will also work with partners attending the London Summit to secure a sustainable global economic recovery, ensure future global macroeconomic and financial stability, maintain open markets, protect the poor, and reform the international financial institutions. We will endeavour to strengthen the institutional energy architecture, taking into account the consumer-producer dialogue process being currently led by the International Energy Forum.

Both of our countries are facing an economic slowdown as a result of the global financial crisis driven by events beyond our borders. We commit to a continued effort to ensure a swift and strong recovery, stimulating our economies in the most effective ways possible in co-ordination with other key economies across the globe. We recognise that such interventions should promote job creation, protect the interests of taxpayers and savers, and avoid undermining the principles of free trade and open markets.

Restoring access to credit markets and ensuring appropriate flows of private capital, particularly towards emerging and developing countries, will be essential for economic recovery world-wide.  In this sense, it is important that International and Regional Financial Institutions, such as the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), devise and implement innovative mechanisms to increase significantly their lending capacity in the short term, and to enlarge their capital base in the medium term. 

In order to avoid similar crises in the future, Mexico and the United Kingdom commit to promote a more effective oversight and governance of the global financial system, as well as transparency and responsibility in financial markets. Also, our two countries will strongly support the reform of the IMF and other multilateral and regional financial institutions to render them more representative and better resourced to prevent or confront crises.  As a basic principle for reform, we underscore the importance of strengthening the participation of developing countries in international financial and regulatory institutions.

• In the difficult and challenging times that the world’s economy is facing, we recognise that our imperative is to create the conditions for resilient and sustainable recovery. Our route to recovery must therefore meet our key objectives of:
  creating jobs and growth;
• ensuring energy security and diversity to fuel that growth in the short and medium term;
• fostering sustainable development and tackling climate change to ensure an economically productive, fair and growing global economy;

In recognition of the important contribution open markets will make to the global economic recovery, we will continue to work together to avert rising protectionism, and push for an ambitious conclusion of the World Trade Organisation Doha Round as soon as possible. We will work together to ensure that countries abide by the commitment made in Washington not to raise new barriers to trade and investment. We jointly call for this commitment to be reaffirmed and strengthened at the London Summit. Additionally, both our countries have benefited from freedom of movement for workers. We hope that the flows of labour that have brought such prosperity and enriching economic and cultural integration in the past will not be put at risk by the global downturn. To this end, we will promote a positive approach to managed migration and commend the positive contribution that migrants have made to destination countries.

G8/G5

The Leaders of Mexico and the United Kingdom reaffirm our commitment to continue strengthening the dialogue between the G8 and the G5. We underline the priority of deepening the understanding between developed countries and emerging economies in order to articulate collective solutions to the most pressing challenges of the global agenda, including the international economic crisis, climate change and food security.

In this context, Prime Minister Gordon Brown recognised the important work undertaken by Mexico as co-ordinator of the G5 (consisting of Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Mexico), while President Felipe Calderón welcomed the active and constructive role that the United Kingdom has played in deepening the G5-G8 dialogue.

International Energy Forum

Mexico and the United Kingdom are both significant producers and consumers of oil, and have been affected – as all countries have – by the recent volatility in energy markets. We hope for an ambitious outcome at the 12th International Energy Forum to be held in Mexico in 2010 and commit to work together and with partners to create the political conditions for such an outcome.

Climate Change

The United Kingdom and Mexico recognise that climate change is one of the great challenges of our times and underline our countries’ commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the paramount importance of reaching agreement on a global climate change deal, that puts the world on a path to avoid dangerous climate change, at the fifteenth Conference of Parties to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009. Consistent with the advice of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we emphasise that this means limiting the increase in global mean temperatures to avoid dangerous anthropological interference with the climate system.

We agree on the key principles that will need to form part of an effective and equitable global climate change deal: 

• All countries have to contribute on the basis of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities set forth in the UNFCCC. Global emissions must peak by 2020 and be cut by at least 50% by 2050 (on 1990 baseline). Developed economies must take the lead in reducing emissions and strengthen their mitigation actions. The UK will reduce its emissions by 80% by 2050. Mexico has expressed its readiness to contribute to a global goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2050.
• There must be scaled up, predictable sources of finance for developing countries to facilitate low-carbon and climate resilient development. The UK and Mexico will work together to promote the necessary structures and mechanisms, which incorporate public and private finance, building upon the ideas helpfully put forward by both Mexico (Green Fund) and Norway.
• A global deal must include credible action to stop deforestation. Our governments will work together, building on a joint statement at Poznan on early action on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and to ensure the inclusion of a REDD mechanism in the Copenhagen deal.
• The backbone of a successful global deal must be agreement on robust and transparent mechanisms to ensure action is measurable, reportable and verifiable.

We recognise the importance of the United Kingdom and Mexico working to encourage global action against climate change.  We will need to build strong coalitions, sharing our experience of the policies and actions that help deliver a low-carbon economy and prevent risks to our security from the impacts of climate change.

United Nations

We welcome our partnership on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and we will continue to work together to promote disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control initiatives.  We share a conviction that the UNSC must be reformed in a comprehensive manner to make it more representative of today's world, and look forward to constructive debate on how to achieve this during the intergovernmental negotiations process in New York.

We will also engage our respective regional partners in order to bring about a comprehensive approach to security, which includes the fight against transnational organised crime, the promotion of human rights and development, and to make progress on operationalising the Responsibility to Protect at national, regional and international levels.

We will also continue to work to ensure the Human Rights Council becomes the most effective body possible for the promotion and protection of human rights, working co-operatively to develop cross-regional alliances in support of this aim.  We will also promote engagement in the Universal Periodic Review to other HRC member states to ensure this important process, in which we have both participated, is both rigorous and useful.

We will continue to support the Secretary General’s efforts to increase progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  We both attended the UN High-Level Event on the MDGs in New York last autumn which brought together a broad coalition of government, business, civil society and faith leaders and raised US$17.5bn of new commitments. To help enhance the UN's ability to deliver on the ground, Mexico and the United Kingdom will work together in promoting system-wide coherence, delivering as One UN in developing countries and the appropriate funding streams and governance structures.  We will also work together to help the UN better deliver for the world’s women, through the creation of a new single body to lead the UN’s efforts on gender.

Bilateral Relations

Mexico and the United Kingdom share a strong and enduring strategic partnership based on mutual respect and trust which has broadened and deepened over recent years. Mexico and the United Kingdom are firmly committed to developing our strategic partnership based on our constructive political  dialogue, promoting the realisation of reciprocal high level visits and contacts,  fostering the economic, commercial, investment, cultural, artistic, educative, technological, and scientific Cupertino between both countries, as well as furthering our shared goals and interests through collaboration at regional and multilateral fora.

Economic relations

There has never been more trade and investment between our two countries.  However, these flows still do not match the potential of the two economies. We reaffirm our commitment to strengthen the capacities of both countries to take advantage of the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, which has removed all tariff barriers on trade in industrial goods between the two countries. We also encourage Proméxico and UK Trade & Investment to intensify work on the identification and possible implementation of joint projects in trade and investment, particularly in the automotive, aeronautics and energy industries. We recognise the importance of business-to-business links in promoting the opportunities in both countries. The Proméxico-UK Trade & Investment Joint Action Plan will continue to provide a framework for both organisations to work together to develop these links and promote these opportunities.

We recognise the advantages that Mexico offers British companies through its size, its excellent geographic location as a stepping stone to the United States and Latin America, its ambitious infrastructure plans, and its vibrant economy. Similarly, the UK – with its strong business environment, international connections and its dynamic creativity - is perfectly positioned to act as a springboard for global growth for Mexican companies expanding internationally.

Both countries agree to continue working on strengthening economic links in the field of energy and environment, including science and technology, research and development, and translating research projects into investments.  Projects on renewable energy are a priority for governments of both countries and British and Mexican institutions will work together to achieve higher levels of Cupertino.

Culture and education

Mexico and the United Kingdom enjoy good co-operation on educational and cultural issues. Both countries welcome the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and the British Council to promote co-operation activities in the fields of education, training and culture, and in the cultural relations aspects of climate change, inter-cultural dialogue and our shared knowledge economies.

Mexico welcomes the interest of Mexican students studying in the UK and will continue supporting bilateral educational exchanges, notably through the UK’s Chevening programme of fellowships and scholarships, including the launch this year of the Chevening Sustainable Scholarships, with funding from the FCO, BP and the Mexican National Ecology Institute as well as those offered by the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) and other Mexican public institutions.

Mexico and the United Kingdom recognise that the celebrations of the Bicentennial of Independence and Centennial of the Mexican Revolution in 2010 will offer the opportunity for cultural exchange as well as strengthen the presence of Mexican culture in the United Kingdom. The exhibition “Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler” to be inaugurated in September 2009 in the British Museum, will further contribute to cultural links between the two countries.

Sustainable Development

Mexico and the UK agree on the importance of ensuring that our economic development and use of resources does not prejudice the development and well-being of future generations and therefore we welcome the Memorandum of Understanding for a Dialogue on Securing a Sustainable Future which will be signed during the State Visit.

This agreement will contribute to the development and more sustainable economic models and ways of life in both countries. Mexico and the UK also recognise the importance of the co-operation programme for 2009-2010, which is included in the Memorandum.