Embassy of India

Mexico City

(As on 12th June2025)

INDIA-MEXICO - BILATERAL BRIEF

India and Mexico (officially called United Mexican States) have similarities in geo-climatic conditions, biodiversity, cultural and family values. Both are heirs to a great civilizational heritage and contacts between them go back to centuries. Gandhiji’s statues and busts adorn some major Mexican cities like Mexico City, Guadalajara, Acapulco, Guanajuato, Cancun, and San Luis Potosi. The writings of Nobel-laureate and Indophile Octavio Paz, who was Mexican Ambassador to India, on his long experiences in India, have a profound impact in Mexico. Mexican wheat varieties, especially the Sonora wheat variety and other hybrids developed by Indian scientists in collaboration with Mexican and international scientists based in CIMMYT, Mexico, were instrumental in the success of Green Revolution in the 1960s and subsequent food self-sufficiency in India.

Diplomatic History

2. Mexico (which gained independence from Spain in 1819) was the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic relations with Independent India in 1950. The year 2025 will mark the diamond jubilee (75 years) of bilateral diplomatic relations. Both countries actively consult and cooperate in international fora, including in the UN and G20.

3. In addition to an Embassy in Mexico City, India has three Honorary Consulates in the Mexican cities of Guadalajara, Monterrey & Cancun. Mexico, in addition to its Embassy in New Delhi, has a Consulate in Mumbai (opened in 2023). During the visit of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to India in 2007, a “Privileged Partnership” was established between the two countries.

VVIP Visits/meetings

4. The last VVIP visit/meeting was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mexico City on 8 June 2016 during which he met the then Mexican President Pena Nieto. The two leaders agreed to work towards elevating the bilateral relationship to a ‘Strategic Partnership’. A return VVIP visit from the Mexican President to India in 2017 was canceled after a devastating earthquake in Mexico City in September 2017. Former President Lopez Obrador, who succeeded Pena Nieto from 2018-2024, seldom visited any foreign country and none outside the American continents.

Meetings between Foreign Ministers

5. EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar visited Mexico from 26-28 September 2021 and underlined the Leaders’ objective of elevating the relationship to a ‘Strategic Partnership’. He also called on the then Mexican President Lopez Obrador. The last visit of an Indian EAM prior to this one, was by Shri PV Narasimha Rao in 1980. From the Mexican side, Former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard visited India from 28 March -1 April 2022 and reiterated the objective of working towards a ‘Strategic Partnership’. He visited India again 28 February - 7 March 2023 for the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. During the visit, he met Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh. EAM and his Mexican counterpart met on the sidelines of UNGA in the years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

6. Shri Pabitra Margherita, MOS for External Affairs visited Mexico from 30 September – 02 October 2024, to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the current President Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, the first female president of Mexico in 200 years.

7. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, led a business delegation to Mexico from 16-20 October 2024. During the visit, Smt. Sitharaman met Mr. Rogelio Ramirez de la O, Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico; and met the members of the Mexican Parliament at the Senate. She also visited the city of Guadalajara and held meetings with Mexican and Indian businesses. An MoU was signed between CII of India and CCE (Business Coordination Council) of Mexico during India Mexico Trade and Investment Summit held during the visit.

Visit by Principal Scientific Advisor to Mexico

8. Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India visited Mexico from 12 – 15 May 2025 to participate in the Meeting of the Board of Trustees of CIMMYT. During the visit, he held bilateral meetings with Dr. Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation and Humanities of Mexico, Mr. Marcelo Ebrard, Minister of Economy of Mexico and with Dr. David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz, Minister of Health of Mexico. Prof. Sood also met Julio Antonio Berdegué Sacristán, Minister of Agriculture of Mexico, at CIMMYT.

Mexico at G20 Summit held in New Delhi

9. Mexican Minister of Economy Ms. Raquel Buenrostro led a delegation to India from 8-10 September 2023 to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit held in New Delhi from 9-10 September 2023, under India’s G20 Presidency.

Mexico in Voice of Global South Summits (VOGSS) hosted in virtual format by India

10. Former Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena participated in the 2nd G20 Leaders’ Summit held in November 2023. During the 3rd Voice of Global South Summit, Vice Minister of Energy Transition and Planning of Mexico, Mr. Heberto Castillo, participated in the Energy Ministers’ Session while Vice Minister of Higher Education of Mexico, Mr. Luciano Concheiro Borquez participated in the Education Ministers’ Session.

Other VIP/Parliamentary visits/Meetings

11. A delegation of 3 Women Members of Parliamentarians from Rajya Sabha (Smt. Phulo Devi Netam, Dr. Medha Vishram Kulkarni and Smt. Sunetra Ajit Pawar) visited Mexico City from 12-18 March 2025 to attend the 1^st IPU Global Conference of Women Parliamentarians. Shri Om Birla, Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha led a delegation to Mexico (31 August – 2 September 2022). Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, MoS Culture & Parliamentary Affairs visited Mexico from 28 September – 2 October 2022. President of the Senate (equivalent to Rajya Sabha) H.E. Ms. Ana Lilia Rivera and the President of the Chamber of Deputies (equivalent to Lok Sabha) H.E. Ms. Marcela Guerra Castillo visited India from 12-14 October 2023 to participate in the 9th P20 Summit and held meetings with the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Shri Om Birla. There is an India-Mexico Parliamentary Group which is established with a new legislature in Mexico. A new India-Mexico Parliamentary Group has been established under the current 66^th legislature of the Mexican Parliament with Deputy Juan Hugo de la Rosa García as the President. The other members of the Group are yet to be announced.

Bilateral Institutional Mechanisms

12. The 6^th Foreign Office Consultations were held on 29 June 2022 hosted by Mexico. The 2^nd Consular Dialogue was hosted by India in virtual format on 12 November 2020.

Economic and Commercial

13. Economic and commercial cooperation driven by increasing bilateral trade and investments have been the major drivers of the relationship in the recent years, particularly in the context of nearshoring opportunities offered by Mexico w.r.t. US markets. Indian companies see Mexico as a major investment destination with access to USMCA region (previously NAFTA) and Latin America.

14. Bilateral Trade: With a trade of USD 11.7 billion, India was Mexico’s ninth largest trading partner in 2024. The bilateral trade in 2024 consisted of Indian imports of US$ 2.7 billion and exports of US$ 8.9 billion to Mexico. In the trade basket from Indian side, the most important items of export are automobiles and auto parts, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and chemical products. From Mexican side, most important item is crude oil. Crude oil also occupies 75% of export basket from Mexico. Other products of export to India are gold and related jewellery, chemical compounds and telephone machinery.

15. Investments: Several Indian companies have invested in Mexico in recent years to take advantage of the phenomenon of nearshoring. The three strongest performing areas for Indian investments in Mexico are information technology, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors. Almost all major Indian IT and ICT companies (TCS, HCL, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, First Source, Cognizant, NIIT, Aptech, Hexaware, Wipro, BirlaSoft, Zoho etc.) have operations in Mexico. Several Indian pharmaceutical firms (Lupin, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Zydus, Claris, Life Sciences, Hetero Drugs, Sun Pharma, and Solara) have investments and operations in Mexico. Zoho corp, an Indian IT company opened its first office in Mexico in February 2024.

16. Tata group under the name Titan X opened an auto cooling part fabrication plant in Mexico in April 2024. Sakthi group is investing in the auto parts sector in Durango. Motherson Technical Precision Mexico has 15 plants in Mexico. The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) of India visited in March 2024 to explore their business expansion options in Mexico. Hero Motocorp, the largest two-wheeler maker of India has a distribution agreement with Grupo Salinas since January 2021.

17. In food processing sector, Parle-G is successfully running its only manufacturing plant in all of Americas in Mexico. Olam group, leading group in food and agri-business and food ingredients, is looking to set up its production plant in Mexico. Indian company UPL Ltd made an investment of USD 11 million in a Research & Development Centre and manufacturing plant in Saltillo, Mexico. Oyo Rooms entered Mexico market in 2019. Flex Americas, a subsidiary of UFLEX Ltd. announced expansion of their operations with an investment of 100 million USD in the north of Mexico. Overall, Indian investments in Mexico are far greater than the other way around. India’s investments in Mexico until the end of the year 2024 are around US $ 4 billion. Presently, over 200 Indian companies have presence in Mexico.

18. From the Mexican side, 17 major companies have presence in India. Leading Mexican companies like Nemak, Metalsa, Mexichem, Great Foods & Beverages, RuhrPumpen, Cinepolis and Kidzania have invested in India in recent times. Mexican IT company Softtek became the first Latin American company to have a presence in India as service provider. Cinepolis has opened over 350 screens all over India penetrating tier 2 cities as well. The total investment of Mexican companies in India is approximately USD 810 Million as opposed to Indian investment in Mexico of ~USD 4 billion. Bimbo has acquired several Indian companies like Harvest Gold and others to become largest bread manufacturer of India.

Science and Technology

19.   During the March-April 2022 visit of the then Mexican Foreign Minister Ebrard to India, the Mexican side had proposed to create an Accelerator Fund for supporting Joint Science, Technology and Innovation Projects with India. In his next visit in March 2023, an MoU was signed between India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).

Education and Technical Cooperation

20.   ITEC program was extended to Mexico in 1991 and currently 35 training slots are available to Mexican participants annually. Separately, under the bilateral academic exchange program, 4 scholarships are offered to Mexican students every year while Mexico makes available up to 6 scholarships to Indian students at any given point of time. The scholarships are for pursuing various undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes. Mexico regularly utilizes the ITEC slots provided by India. 25 Mexican police officials attended an ITEC course organized by the Rashtriya Raksha University in Gujarat from  25 June - 5 July 2024. Separately, Mexico also utilizes training slots offered by Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service Institute (SSIFS) of the Ministry of External Affairs to Mexican diplomats, the latest being the participation of Mexican diplomats at the Special Course for Pacific Alliance Countries and in the 5^th Disarmament & International Security Affairs Fellowship Programme.

Consular

21.  The first bilateral Consular Dialogue was held in Mexico City on 17 October 2014. The 2^nd Consular Dialogue was held virtually on 12 November 2020. Under a bilateral agreement signed in October 2005, diplomatic and official passport holders are exempted from visa for a stay of maximum of 90 days. Persons (of any nationality) holding valid visa of the USA, Canada or resident permit of UK and Schengen Area also do not require visa to enter Mexico for tourism, transit, and business purposes for up to 180 days. Mexico is included in the list of countries whose citizens are eligible for the online Electronic Tourist Visa (eTV). There exists an Extradition Treaty as well as an Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Criminal Matters between the two countries which were signed during the September 2007 visit of President Calderon to India.

Cultural, People-to-People Contacts

22. In March 2024, an MoU was signed to revive the Octavio Paz Chair of Indian Studies at the El Colegio de Mexico. A statue of Swami Vivekanand at the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo and a bust of freedom fighter and agricultural scientist, Dr. Pandurang Khankhoje at Chapingo University were unveiled by the Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha Shri Om Birla during his visit to Mexico in August-September 2022. The Gurudev Tagore Indian Cultural Centre has been functioning in Mexico since October 2010 and holds regular classes for Yoga, Indian Classical dances, Sitar and Tabla at the Centre.

Indian Community

23.  The Indian community (PIOs/NRIs) in Mexico is small, numbering around 10,000 with about one fifth of them in Mexico City, and the rest spread in Guadalajara, Monterrey, Cuernavaca, Queretaro, Cancun etc. The bulk is formed by IT professionals working for IT companies like TCS, Infosys and WIPRO. Others comprise executives of Indian and international companies, academicians, and some businesspersons mostly in pharmaceuticals, textile and garment business. In 2016, an ‘Indian Association of Mexico (IAM)’ was registered locally. Mexico City has an ISKCON temple, Sikh Gurudwara and a mosque.  There is a Hanuman temple in Queretaro and a Ram temple is under construction.

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List of MoU / Agreement / Treaties between India and Mexico

26. General Agreement of cooperation between the Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN) of the United Mexican States and the Chandigarh University of the Republic of India – signed by India in Mohali on 10 June 2019 and by Mexico in Mexico City on 31 October 2019.

27. General Agreement of cooperation between the Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN) of the United Mexican States and the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies of the Republic of India – signed by India in Dehradun and by Mexico in Mexico City on 20 November 2014.