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OAS and Mexico Agree to Implement Technical Cooperation Activities for the Benefit of other Countries

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for International Development, Roger Granguillhome today signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of technical cooperation activities such as assistance, expert exchange and training seeking to foster the economic and social development of other countries.

The Secretary General Insulza stressed how the nature and definition of international cooperation has changes in recent decades. "Before, cooperation in the hemisphere was almost entirely limited to the North-South cooperation, and not conceived in a different way of that which came from more developed countries to the less developed. Over the years, the countries of the region have gradually acquired a knowledge and technical capacity that can be transferred to other countries in the developing world, "he said.

The OAS representative also stressed the willingness of the more developed member countries to cooperate with the most vulnerable, and welcomed the initiative of the Mexican International Cooperation Agency to sign an agreement that will "substantially strengthen our work in the area of cooperation, especially in institutional strengthening and human resource training."

At the signing ceremony, the representative of the Mexican Agency welcomed the OAS' willingness to create opportunities to strengthen the ties of cooperation between the countries of the region and said that the government of his country attaches "a role of fundamental importance to international organizations in the new global architecture for development, given their representativeness and their ability to mobilize and articulate collective joint efforts. "

In this regard, Granguillhome said that the OAS "plays an important role among the priorities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico," either as a partner in the deployment of cooperation or as a benchmark of best practices in the hemisphere.

The Mexican representative noted that the memorandum of understanding signed today "will open new avenues of interaction in an area of ??growing importance such as triangular cooperation", adding that the agreement will allow the sum of interagency strengths to maximize the human, technological and budget resources allocated to cooperation, which will result in more effective support for the various subregions of the continent.

Prior to the signing, held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, OAS Secretary General and the Agency's Executive Director held a private meeting during which they talked about the role of Mexico as current president of the G20, cooperation in Haiti and the ways in which the OAS will provide a bridge for triangular cooperation with Caribbean countries.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

A video of the event is avaliable here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-131/12