By Eliane Portillo

Mexico and Korea celebrated 50 years of bilateral relationships with a series of cultural and artistic activities on Thursday. The aim is to increase cultural exchange and cooperation between the two nations.

President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and his Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak sent each other congratulatory letters expressing their wishes to improve the countries’ bilateral relationship and desires to cooperate for the betterment of the two nations. During a special ceremony at the Palacio Postal (Postal Palace), Pablo Salvador Reyes Pruneda, the Director General of the Mexican Postal Service, accompanied by the Korean Ambassador to Mexico, Whan-bok Cho, presented a special postage stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the relationship between Korea and Mexico.

Rogelio Granguilhome Morfín, Director Executive of the Mexican International Cooperation Agency (Amexcid), pointed out that the postage stamp is a symbol of Mexico’s desire to engage in more cooperation programs with Korea and to create stronger friendship bonds. There is a great potential as to how much the two nations can work together on in terms of economy. That is, however, not the end of it. There is a lot Korea and Mexico can also do in terms of cultural, scientific and educational exchange, as well as diplomatic relations, he noted.

Throughout the year, the two countries will host a series of activities, the aim of which is to promote the two cultures and inform the world about the beauties of Korea and Mexico. The bilateral relationship is extremely beneficial because Korea is Mexico’s sixth most important trading partner and its third most important investor from the Asia-Pacific region.

The two nations are also members of the G-20 nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC).