Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe struck a series of energy deals on Friday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the start of a five-country Latin American tour.
Abe, whose visit to the region comes on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平), met Pena Nieto at the presidential palace for talks that ended with the signing of a raft of deals.
The new agreements included one between Mexican state oil firm Pemex and Japan’s development bank and another between Pemex and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.
With Japan on the lookout for new power sources after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster forced the shutdown of its reactors, energy is high on the prime minister’s agenda for the trip.
Neither side released details, but Japan’s top-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported on Friday that Tokyo plans to help Mexico develop its nascent shale gas sector and to start importing Mexican gas in the mid-2020s.
Mexico is also undergoing sweeping changes in its energy sector, with the Mexican Congress poised to end struggling Pemex’s 75-year monopoly and open up the oil and gas sectors to foreign investment.
The two leaders, who were both elected in 2012, took turns praising each other for the reforms they have implemented.
Pena Nieto hailed the “bold transformations” of Abe’s fiscal stimulus and monetary easing programs, while Abe drew parallels between their leadership styles, saying both saw reform as a growth strategy.
Traveling with a delegation of Japanese executives and his wife Akie, Abe received a red-carpet greeting at Mexico City airport from Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Antonio Meade.
Pena Nieto and first lady Angelica Rivera then threw a welcome ceremony for them at the presidential palace.
Abe was also due to chair a bilateral economic forum and tour the pyramids at the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan.
Japan is Mexico’s fourth-largest trade partner, with total trade of US$19.3 billion last year, and also has a strong and growing presence in the Latin American country’s auto sector.
Abe’s nine-day trip — which will also take him to Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Chile and Brazil — comes two days after Xi wrapped up his own four-country tour.
The interest of the rival powers underlines Asia’s growing interest in the region’s fast-growing economies and vast natural resources.
Announcing Abe’s trip earlier this month, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Latin American countries “are increasingly important for the Japanese economy because of their growing economies and natural resources.”
Japan, long one of the world’s top exporting countries, has registered two consecutive years of trade deficits since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima disaster.
With its emerging economies, Latin America holds promise as a relatively untapped market for Japanese exports, in addition to its coveted raw materials.
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