- In the UN Security Council, Mexico proposes a World Plan for Fraternity and Wellbeing
- Normal activity resumes on the northern border
During today's morning press conference led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard reported that the 9th North American Leaders' Summit would be held on November 18 in Washington, D.C. to strengthen cooperation and reaffirm the ties between the three nations. He said that the leaders would discuss competitiveness; economic recovery and integration; health and health security; migration; development for a safe region, and climate change. He also said that the next Leaders' Summit would take place next year in Mexico.
The Summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between President López Obrador, President Joseph Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and is being held with the aim of building together a more prosperous, egalitarian and secure North America. There will also be bilateral meetings with the other two leaders.
On the issue of health security and COVID-19, the Foreign Secretary emphasized the regional interest in promoting universal access to vaccines, saying, “What we have experienced cannot happen again. [We will talk about] the responsibilities of the three countries with respect to the rest of the world, where there has been enormously inequitable access."
The leaders will also discuss the economic issue of how “to create conditions for equitable, successful growth and how to strengthen supply chains in the region; and we will address the difficulties we are now facing due to the pandemic, which have not ended." They will look for opportunities to deepen the region's supply chains to accelerate the economic recovery of the three countries, all from a perspective of inclusion and equity: "To build a safe North America we must include these themes: development, fairness, growth and diversity," said the Secretary.
Lastly, the three leaders will have a discussion about development and migration in the region, an issue that the Mexican government has stressed in various forums. One of Mexico’s main goals for the Summit is to find opportunities to collaborate on projects that boost investment and economic growth in Central America and create better economic opportunities there, in addition to promoting regular, safe and orderly migration.
World Plan for Fraternity and Wellbeing
Secretary Ebrard addressed the topic of yesterday's high-level open debate in the United Nations Security Council that was chaired by Mexico. The Foreign Secretary said that President López Obrador proposed a World Plan for Fraternity and Wellbeing that would guarantee the right to a decent life for 750 million human beings who survive on less than two dollars a day so that "These people who are forgotten receive the support of the international community, so that we stop the cynicism of assuming that it always has to be this way.”
Mexico's proposal can be financed with a fund that comes from at least three sources, “four percent from the income, the profits, of those with the most money in the world; four percent from the income, the profits, of the thousand corporations with the most annual income, and 0.2 percent of the gross income of the G20, of the world's 20 largest economies." The resources would be delivered directly, "this is not a program that allocates funds to governments, but to people."
The Secretary said, “The Foreign Ministry has been instructed to coordinate with each and every member of the diplomatic representations of the countries in the United Nations, in the organizations, and to organize the plan as soon as possible so that is presented to the UN General Assembly and can be approved, promoted and carried out in 2022. This is the beginning of a path that Mexico is proposing."
The international community has shown great interest. "More than 47 countries have signed up to participate in a first round (...) Many regional organizations, countries, are contacting our diplomatic representations to participate in preparing the plan. We think that we are going to have a lot of participation and that Mexico is going to be in a very, very important position to achieve this objective. The President will be giving us his instructions,” said the Foreign Secretary.
Resumption of activities on the northern border
Lastly, Secretary Ebrard reported that, with the resumption of normal activities on Mexico's northern border on November 8, there has been an increase in non-essential activities across the border. "It started at 12 percent; now we're at 25 percent, and we hope to be at more than 60, 70 percent by the end of this week," he concluded.
