At the begining of his speech, Katsuhito Miura highlighted that the relation between Mexico and Japan started 400 years ago, when Mexico used to be named ‘‘La Nueva España’’. According to the expert ‘‘the relation between these two countries comes from a long and close friendship of partners that share values and are friends during adversity’’ he said.

When talking about the history that links the two countries, the speaker emphasized that the first trip made from Japan to Mexico was in 1613, and in 1888 the first treaty with Mexico was signed, this ‘‘opened the frontier of Japan with other countries from the American continent, using this treaty as a base to have egalitarian agreements with other countries. This way the very first important Japanese migration occurred in 1899’’, he recalled.

Likewise, he highlighted the fact that before the General Assembly of the United Nations, in 1948 (a few years later from World War II), Mexico proposed a peace treaty with Japan, being this the second country to sign it in 1951.

He added that nowadays Mexico is for Japan a ‘‘great strategic ally’’ since investment has been increasing, mainly in the automotive sector and other industries such as tourism.

Concerning the collaboration bounds, he continued, ‘’an unfortunate thing that both countries have in common: the natural disasters, in the specific case of earthquakes, although, there has always been a good help response from both governments’’, and he addressed the recent earthquake in Mexico (2017) and the one in Japan (2011)