By Li Hongmei

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Mexico Tuesday on last leg of his Latin American tour. Xi is due to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to fortify the bilateral relationship and improve trade opportunities for both countries.

Neither country's presence in the other country currently lives up to its potential, said Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Jose Antonio Meade Kuribrena in an interview released by the Pena Nieto administration.

"Just as the presence that Mexico has today in China is less than its potential, also the presence that China has in Mexico is less than its potential," said Meade in the interview. "Mexico as a tourist destination, Mexico as an investment destination, Mexico as a commercial alternative that gains greater importance in the world, the exports China has; well all those are important and they will be even more so, we feel, beginning with the interest that the two leaders have to construct this solid relationship, and the interest that President Xi Jinping shows with his trip to Mexico," Meade said.

President Xi has said that China is ready to work with Mexico to expand and optimize bilateral trade. This raises the possibility of starting negotiations on a bilateral free trade deal.
 
With or without a bilateral free trade pact in the future, it is likely that China will be very interested in Mexican oil exports to fuel its robust economy, which would also reduce Mexico's trade imbalance with China.

For Mexico's part, the Pena Nieto administration sees the development of the relationship with China as including:

A strong political dialog with frequent contacts at the presidential and ministerial level;

Strengthening of the work by the Permanent Bi-national Committee;

Promoting economic and commercial exchange in more equal manner;

Promoting more contacts among business sectors of both countries;

Promoting contacts among legislative and other branches of the two governments, as well as between the two societies;

Development of closer collaboration in multilateral forums to promote joint actions of mutual interest

The meeting between Xi and Pena Nieto will be the second in less than two months, after Pena Nieto's visit to China in April. The fact that both leaders have chosen early in their administrations to visit the other country is seen by observers as a positive step in bilateral relations. Xi became president on March 14, 2013, and Pena Nieto took office on December 1, 2012.

China is Mexico's second largest trade partner after the United States. Mexico is China's second largest trade partner in Latin America.

Xi is on his third leg of a four-country tour that will end in the United States with a meeting with U.S. President Barak Obama on Friday. Before visiting Mexico, Xi traveled to Trinidad & Tobago and Costa Rica.