AMMAN — The Mexican
ambassador to Jordan, Roberto Rodriguez-Hernandez, on Tuesday delivered a
lecture on Mexico’s foreign policy at the
University of Jordan’s (UJ) Center
for Strategic Studies (CSS).
اضافة اعلان
The lecture, titled
“Foreign Policy of Mexico: Principles and Practices,” was attended by a group
of researchers, students and professors of international relations at the UJ.
According to the
ambassador, the principles Mexican foreign policy include self-determination,
non-intervention, peaceful conflict resolution, recognition of the independence
of states and international cooperation, among others.
The ambassador said
that the creation of different states after World War II did not solve all the
problems; to the contrary, several problems were created because “they were
just thinking of drawing lines” rather than considering a lot of different regional
elements and factors.
Mexico does have a kind
of “a war situation" when it comes to belonging to North, Central, or
Latin America, according to the diplomat.
“It seems that it is
just an academic classification, but it is not because we were part of Spain,
we were a colony of Spain and just 200 years ago we got our independence,” he added.
“…We faced a lot of
challenges, like several invasions, several occupations, and different kinds of
problems with countries, not just from Europe, but specifically with the United
States of America,” said Hernandez.
“During the 18th century, we had different kinds of crises and war with the US, and because of
that we lost at least half of our territory … this marks the best principles
that lead our foreign policy; non-intervention, self-determination and peaceful
solutions of the international conflicts,” Hernandez elaborated.
The ambassador
compared the conflict Mexico is having with its neighbor, the US, and that
Israel is having with Middle Eastern countries, reflecting a number of ongoing
similar issues like safety and water.
Despite the fact that
Mexico observes the principle of non-intervention in order to maintain the countries
best interest, Hernandez noted, it did intervene in Nicaragua, as it did in
Cuba, to support both countries’ self-determination right against the US.
“In fact, talking about our foreign policy,
we still apply the same principles. Regarding the Middle East region, obviously,
we did support all the time self-determination of Palestine. We support any
resolutions from the United Nations relating to peaceful solutions recognizing
the two states; Palestine and Israel,” he added.
The ambassador condemned any kind of
violence or violation against the people of Gaza and the West Bank, as well as
the disproportionate use of force against any of the sides.
Hernandez also highlighted the similarities between Mexico and Jordan’s policies.
He recalled the Arab Spring some ten years ago, when Jordan took the
opportunity to introduce legislative and structural reforms.
He noted that many governments across the
world have made such transformations towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, which aims at achieving different goals, such as the recognition
of human rights, gender equality, and the reduction of poverty.
The ambassador commended universities and
institutions, including the CSS, for conducting studies on what to be done
after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he suggested that such studies should focus
on what to be done during the pandemic, because its end is not yet in sight.
For his part,
Professor Zaid Eyadat, director of CSS, said that although people think that
the Middle East is far away from Latin America, both regions are “very close in
terms of culture, history, and politics,” as 10 percent of the Spanish language
dictionary is from Arabic background, and more than 15 percent of Latin
America’s population is from Arab descent.
“At the school of
international studies at UJ, we established a quasi-establishment of a center
of Latin American Studies back in 2012 — it was supposed to be the leading
center on understanding the culture of Latin America and the bridge between
Arab countries and Latin America,” he said. “Then we have established the
Council on Arab Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean (CARLAC),”
Eyadat added.
“I hope this lecture will be an invitation to revive
all these advances, focusing first on a research project on Latin America to be
hosted and housed at the center and then reviving the Latin American Center and
CARLAC,” the CSS director said.
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