Mexico and India have reached an agreement to collaborate on projects across a range of areas, including water management and the production of low-cost vaccines.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard joined Indian Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh in New Delhi Saturday to witness the signing of the agreement between the ministry he heads and India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), Ebrard announced that Mexico and India will collaborate on and jointly finance “binational development and innovation projects in several fields,” including ones related to water, lithium, the aerospace industry, biotechnology and vaccines.
Under the new agreement, the SRE statement added, “both countries will identify priority projects for development, among which are water management, development of electro-mobility and production of vaccines at low cost.”
Electromobility refers to e-vehicles, including automobiles but also other forms of transport such as seagoing vessels such as ships and ferries.
Mexico and India agreed to contribute US $500,000 each to a fund to finance the binational projects.
Once the fund is established, “various research institutions will be called upon to implement the selected projects,” Ebrard said.
India, like Mexico, is seeking to exploit reserves of lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries. The south Asian nation — the world’s fifth largest economy — currently relies on imports of lithium for its manufacturing sector.
The exact nature of Mexico and India’s proposed lithium-related project, or projects, was unclear.
The SRE statement also noted that Ebrard met in Delhi with Rajat Malhan, vice president of Sun Mobility, a company that operates battery swapping stations for riders of electric motorcycles.
Ebrard said that the company would seek Mexican partners in order to establish similar stations in Mexico.
“We had the pleasure of demonstrating our battery swapping solution to @m_ebrard … during his visit to Delhi. It is highly motivating for us to receive such a positive response for our solutions that are “Made in India for the world,” Sun Mobility said on Twitter.
Earlier last week, Ebrard met briefly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while attending the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Delhi. He passed on the “greetings and affection” of the people of Mexico and President López Obrador, the SRE said.
The foreign minister’s trip to India coincided with the opening of a Mexican Consulate in Mumbai, the country’s financial hub.
In a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Kalam Abdul Momen, Ebrard announced that Mexico would open an embassy in Bangladesh in the second half of 2023.
The SRE said that Mexico “is interested in strengthening business and cooperation with Bangladesh, particularly in the pharmaceutical, agroindustry and technological sectors.”
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