Mexican Ambassador Miguel Ruiz-Cabanas said Thursday that he is lucky and because the relationship between Japan and his country has never been better.
2005 is an important year because the bi-lateral free-trade agreement will go into effect April 1, giving Japanese companies an opportunity to compete on an equal footing with firms from other countries that have similar agreements with Mexico, he said.
Mexico is the world's ninth-largest economy, with a population of 100 million. It would like to increase exports of industrial components and products as well as agricultural products to Japan, he said.
He also said that next year will be important culturally.
A Mexico-Japan cultural summit will be held to discuss identity and diversity in the age of globalization, and Japan will be the theme of the Cervantino Festival in the city Guanajuato, 350 km north of Mexico City, he said. The festival is one of Mexico's most important cultural events, he said.
Mexico, the fourth-richest country in biodiversity, will have a pavilion at the 2005 Aich Expo.
Ruiz-Cabanas called Japan a "window" to Asia and Mexico's most important partner in the region. He said polls show that Mexicans respect Japan more than any other country.
He said the 1888 Mexico-Japan amity and commerce treaty was the first that did not impose extraterritoriality on Japan, and the 1954 Mexico-Japan cultural treaty was the first of its kind in postwar Japan. Nobel laureate in literature Octavio Paz helped write the 1954 treaty as a young diplomat, he said.
Ruiz-Cabanas submitted his credentials to Emperor Akihito on Sept. 3.