ISRAELI RELATIONS WITH MEXICO (C-NE8-00834)

S E C R E T MEXICO 002218

CORRECTED COPY (PARA 2.NOTE ADDED,PARA 8&9. CHANGED)

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/14/2018
TAGS: PINR PARM PREL IS MX
SUBJECT: ISRAELI RELATIONS WITH MEXICO (C-NE8-00834)

REF: STATE 64659

Classified By: Pol MinCouns Charles V. Barclay. Reasons:
1.4 (b and d).


1. (C/NF) Poloff met separately with Enrique Palos, Deputy
Director General for Africa and the Middle East at the
Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE),and Lior Keinan,
Political Counselor and Press and Cultural Attache at the
Israeli Embassy in Mexico City, on July 3 and 8,
respectively, to discuss Israeli-Mexican relations. The
following responses are organized according to the most
important questions in reftel for Mexico.


2. (C/NF) Current State of Political, Military and Economic
Relations

-- Palos characterized relations between Mexico and Israel
as excellent and broad with regular dialogue, mentioning that
Israel was the top economic partner for Mexico in the Middle
East. (Note: Mexico and Israel signed a free trade agreement
in July 1, 2000 after two years of active negotiations.
Trade between the two countries has increased by 271%
since the signing of the agreement. Imports to Mexico
from Israel were 441 million USD in 2007 while exports,
of which nearly 75% are crude oil or hydrocarbon
based minerals only reached 129.5 million USD. End note)
Palos said that, given the trade imbalance between the
two countries in favor of Israel, Mexican businesses should
take more initiative to export to Israel under the Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. Palos said that
economic relations with Israel are independent of Israel's
trade relationship with Mercosur. He said that Mexico
supports a two-state solution with secure borders in the
Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) between Israel and the
Palestinian Territories.

-- Keinan commented that relations between Israel and Mexico
are good but could be improved. He noted that Mexican trade
with Israel was not only the largest in the Middle East, but
larger than all of the other countries in the region
combined. He said that Israel has benefited from the FTA
with Mexico but hopes that, even though the imbalance favors
Israel, Mexico can increase its exports. Keinan commented
that it was too early to tell what effect the FTA with
Mercosur might have on economic relations with Mexico. With
so many Israeli companies doing business in Mexico, he
thought that many also could increase business with the U.S.
Politically, relations have improved under Calderon,
including a Vice Foreign Minister visit recently to Mexico.
He complained that Mexico votes almost automatically against
Israel on human rights in Geneva and as such overall
relations are better bilaterally than multilaterally. B


3. (C/NF) Key Areas of Cooperation, Mutual Interest and
Tension

-- Palos noted a number of areas of cooperation between the
two countries, including technology, security and defense.
He also alluded to the visit of the Israeli Philharmonic
Orchestra to Mexico two months ago to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of Israel as an example of strong cultural
relations between the two countries. Palos commented that
Mexico was an important country for Israel in the region.

-- Keinan said that promotion by Israel of further
cooperation in commercial and cultural relations is a matter
of budget availability. He mentioned that 40-50 Mexicans
have gone to Israel in the past year for training, and
Israeli experts visit Mexico on a regular basis to promote
agricultural and security cooperation. Israel is interested
in deepening trilateral cooperation with the Mexico and the
U.S., suggesting Israel would like to find a way to
complement Merida Initiative funding. He again cited tension
with Mexico on its votes in the UN on the Palestinian
Territories and Lebanon, even after Israel left Lebanon in
2000 and conveyed concern about the potential consequences of
Mexico not being strong enough in opposing terrorism. He was
pleased that Mexico participated in the MEPP meeting in
Annapolis but believes its decision was driven by Brazil's
participation and its desire to demonstrate regional
leadership, not an intrinsic interest in the MEPP. Keinan
described Mexico as on the same of level of importance as
Argentina and Brazil, especially in light of the large Jewish
community in Mexico. He reiterated the positive impact that
the FTA had on Israel and was impressed with the extent to
which one could find expressions of Israeli culture --
including traditional dance and books on Israel -- in remote
parts of Mexico, .


4. (C/NF) Extent of Cooperation on Hezbollah, Hamas and FARC

-- Palos commented that Mexico complies with its UN
obligations as a member of the General Assembly, including
Security Council resolutions, and respects international law.
Unlike the case with Spanish terrorist organization, ETA,
Mexico has not uncovered evidence of active members of
Hezbollah or Hamas living in Mexico nor any evidence of these
groups' involvement in terrorist activities in Mexico.
(###)E-- Keinan said that Mexico has sent officials for
training on the subject of counterterrorism to Israel.
He said that Israel was concerned about efforts by the
"militant" Iranian Ambassador to Mexico to open up new
consulates in the country. Although Hezbollah influence is
not that strong in Mexico with the majority of those from the
Middle East being Christians from Lebanon and Syria, he
commented that Iranian influence is on the rise in Nicaragua,
which is not that far away. He cautioned that terrorists only
need a few cells to mount an attack.


5. (C/NF) Cooperation with Israel to Limit Iran's Influence
in the Region and its Nuclear Program

-- Palos said that Mexico maintains a respectful bilateral
relationship with Iran but is concerned about its nuclear
program. Mexico, he said, believes that Tehran needs to give
all assurances that its nuclear intentions are peaceful that
can be verified by the IAEA. He reminded Poloff that Mexico
led the Tlatelolco negotiations for a nuclear-free Latin
America.

-- Keinan said that Israel did not need to leverage any of
its assistance or other parts of its relationship to get
Mexico to act on a bilateral issue as there are no concrete
problems of such magnitude. He remarked on Mexico's efforts
to become a member of the UNSC next year and noted that it
voted most of the time with the international community,
often times against Israel.


6. (C/NF) Points of Agreement or Disagreement on the Middle
East Peace Process (MEPP)

-- Palos said that, regarding the MEPP, Mexico will support
whatever the two sides agree on. Mexico believes that
negotiations are the only way to resolve the conflict,
supports the UN, and condemns the use of violence. To
Mexico, the two-state proposal makes sense within the context
of a negotiated solution that allows each to provide for
their economic well being and serves a basis for cooperation.


-- Keinan said that Mexico tends to follow the international
community's lead on this issue with little real interest in
the MEPP. In supporting the two-state solution, Mexico takes
a low profile, and like the international community is
concerned about terrorism on the one-side and civilian
casualties on the other.


7. (C/NF) Extent to which Foreign Policy Shaped by Jewish
Community and Relations by Jewish and Arab Communities

-- Palos maintained that while the GOM engages Mexico's
Jewish community, it has developed and maintains its policy
toward Israel based on its own foreign policy tenets and
objectives, with little input from the community. He
characterized the community as not as uncritically pro-Israel
as he believed the U.S. community to be, but not as
self-critical and neutral toward Israel as the Jewish
community in Europe. Arab and Muslim immigrants here do not
exercise particular influence on Mexico's policy toward
Israel, he said. Most Arab immigrants are Christian
Maronites from the levant and have fully integrated into
Mexican society. Current Arab immigrants tend to use Mexico
as a stopping point on their way to the U.S.

-- Keinan, however, characterized the Jewish community as
just as pro-Israel and active and influential as the Jewish
community in the U.S. Keinan said that it is likely that
Mexico's foreign policy towards Israel will be the same 10-20
years from now. However, there are many positive points
bilaterally that are not politically driven.


8. (C/NF) Extent to which Arms Sales or Transfers are Related
to Other Areas like Iran, Terrorism or Mercosur

-- Palos said that Mexico's ties to Israel are mainly
commercial. Given that his point of view is from SRE, he
said that it was unclear the kinds of arms exchanges that
have occurred in the past but they have not been extensive.
Military cooperation and weaponry, such as an anti-missile
system, are not important because Mexico does not feel
threatened by its neighbors. Palos indicated that purchases
or sales of arms from Israel in comparison to the rest of the
world were very small and would continue to be insignificant
in the future.

-- Keinan said that Mexico is not a major market for Israeli
arms, but Israel does share technology and helps with arms
maintenance. Keinen pointed out that Mexico
was more interested in knowledge about policing and internal
security than in defense procurement from Israel.
Summary of Israeli-Mexican Relations


9. (C/NF) COMMENT: Overall, the representatives of both
governments believe that the relationship is strong and
getting better. Israel, however, remains concerned about
Mexico's voting in multilateral fora. Both our SRE and
Israeli Embassy interlocutors agree that Mexico should export
more of its products to Israel as part of the FTA that the
two countries enjoy. At the same time, both parties remain
aware of the possibility that the recently signed free
trade agreement between Israel and Mercosur could affect
trade levels as the Mercosur countries provide an alternative
for those looking to do business in Latin America
Israel assists Mexico in a wide range
of areas including agriculture and internal security. On
terrorism, the two sides cooperate in training and
intelligence with neither perceiving an immediate threat.
There are a wide array of business, technological and
cultural exchanges between the two countries, but, as Keinan
said, much of it is superficial and does not approach the
level registered by the U.S.-Israel or U.S.-Mexico
relationships. END COMMENT


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Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap /
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