Korea-Mexico summit agrees to expand economic, AI, and cultural cooperation

The two countries decided to promote regular high-level exchanges... Active cooperation in multilateral meetings

Achievements such as AI cooperation declaration and investment guarantee agreement… The establishment of a ‘K Culture Center’ in Mexico was also discussed.

(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Reporters Lim Hyeong-seop and Seol Seung-eun = President Lee Jae-myung held a summit meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on the 24th (local time) and discussed ways to advance economic cooperation between the two countries to the next level.

The meeting lasted a total of 119 minutes, including 44 minutes for the small group meeting and 75 minutes for the expanded meeting, through which the two leaders adopted the '2026-2030 Korea-Mexico Joint Action Plan' document.

This includes a plan to not only promote regular high-level exchanges between the two countries, but also to hold regular high-level policy consultations at the vice-ministerial level between the two countries' foreign ministries.

In addition, it was decided to strengthen cooperation within APEC by conducting interim inspections to support the implementation of the APEC AI Initiative in 2028, when Mexico will assume the chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). At the same time, it was decided to strengthen cooperation with Korea's assumption of the chairmanship of the G20 in 2028 and Mexico's assumption of the G20 in 2029 in mind.

At the meeting, the two leaders also agreed to expand cooperation in earnest in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, and adopted the 'AI Cooperation Declaration' containing these contents.

In the defense industry, President Lee expressed hope that our defense supplies, which have excellent performance and competitiveness, will contribute to the modernization of Mexico's military.

Discussions about cultural exchange continued.

In addition, through this summit, after seven years of negotiations, the revised text of the investment security agreement was finally concluded, and a consensus was also reached on the need to conclude a social security agreement to alleviate the burden of double payment of pension insurance premiums for dispatched workers in both countries.

The two leaders reached a consensus on continuing the interest in K-pop and K-food, which are highly popular in Mexico, by expanding cultural exchange between the two countries. In this regard, they discussed ways to establish a 'K-Culture Center' in Mexico City where people can comprehensively experience Korean culture.

In a press release, the National Security Office said, "This summit is significant in that it strengthened institutional cooperation in the economic and trade fields and expanded the scope of cooperation in all directions to include finance and supply chains, AI and digital, aviation and space, culture, and education."

He continued, “Also, given that this is supported by a specific action plan, it will be an opportunity to take the ‘strategic partnership’ between the two countries to the next level quantitatively and qualitatively.”