Visit of Head of CCMD to Mexico
Alan Gogbashian, Head of the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico Department (CCMD) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office visited Mexico.
The objective of the visit was to take stock of the Mexico/United Kingdom relationship following the Dual Year UK/MX 2015, and in advance of the developments coming ahead in 2017: the presidential transition in the US, the UK’s departure from the European Union and the UK’s Prosperity Fund.
In Mexico City, Mr. Gogbashian held appointments with Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe Carlos de Icaza, Director General for Europe Francisco del Río and Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, Paulo Carreño King in the Foreign Ministry; with Dr Carlos Pérez, Senior Adviser to the President Enrique Peña Nieto; with Lázaro Gaytán Aguirre, Mireya Barbosa Betancourt and María Bartolucci Blanco, members of the National Security Commission. His agenda also included meetings with Dr Herminio Blanco, Mexican Economist and former Minister for Trade and lead negotiator of NAFTA; with Dr Luis de la Calle, economist, commentator and also a member of the team which negotiated NAFTA, now an adviser to the UK Department for International Trade; and Gabriela Cuevas, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Senate.
Mr. Gogbashian met with Gabriella Gómez-Mont, Founder and Director of Mexico City’s Lab and Cerebro Urbano, a Mexican NGO with expertise on urbanism and financial services. He witnessed first-hand the work that Mexico’s Prosperity Fund has developed in recent years to support sustainable economic development, economy regulation and business innovation for growth in Mexico. He also held internal meetings with Ambassador Duncan Taylor and Embassy staff. In Chiapas, he met members of local government and civil society for discussions on economic development, human rights and migration.
Mr. Gogbashian’s visit to Mexico follows other previous senior visits aimed at strengthening the bilateral relationship, including the then Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in May 2016 and the Minister for Human Rights, Baroness Anelay in December 2016.