Interview with Héctor Vasconcelos, senator
Considering the current situation in Ukraine as the biggest international crisis since the Second World War, Senator Héctor Vasconcelos stressed that Mexico is doing the best it can without violating its constitutional principles by supporting it with humanitarian aid, without sending weapons or imposing sanctions on Russia. .
—How do you rate the Mexican position regarding the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?
I think that the Mexican response to the very serious events in Ukraine has been, on the one hand, consistent with our constitutional principles of foreign policy, with article 89 of the Constitution. On the one hand, we have made it a fact that Mexico is not going to participate in this conflict, it is not going to send military personnel or weapons at any time, and this corresponds to one of the historical principles of Mexican foreign policy, which consists of not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries.
On the other hand, I believe that Mexico, like the majority of all countries in the world, has condemned the violation of international law, and another of our constitutional principles is the observance of international law and legal norms.
– Should countries like Mexico maintain diplomatic bridges with Russia, or as many want, impose sanctions?
We are talking about the internal affairs of Ukraine and Russia. And the President of the Republic deeply believes in this principle of non-intervention because it is the only way to defend ourselves against other countries intervening in Mexican affairs.
I believe that Mexican foreign policy has to find a balance that is very difficult to achieve between condemning a violation of international law while not intervening, not even applying sanctions or sending weapons.
If Mexico starts imposing sanctions on other countries, tomorrow other countries will impose sanctions on Mexico, as President Trump tried in 2019, do we want that? Let’s have a principle on that subject, let’s uphold a principle.
—Do you think that Mexico could offer mediation between Ukraine and Russia?
Of course, the Mexican government maintains permanent contact with the Russian embassy. The Senate Foreign Relations Commission proposed last week, with the consent of the eight parties that are represented in the Commission, that Mexico try to negotiate an agreement with the nuclear powers involved in this conflict, an agreement not to use in any case In no scenario nuclear weapons is something that seems to us in the commission to be a form of mediation that does not violate the principles of Mexican foreign policy.
There are also many other forms: the participation that Mexico is having in the Security Council, I believe, represents and materializes this policy of the President of the Republic regarding this matter.
—Given the complex situation, do you think it is feasible to send someone without diplomatic experience as ambassador to Russia?
An attribution of any head of state in any part of the world is to appoint ambassadors. Eduardo Villegas’s proposal as ambassador of Mexico to Russia has not yet been analyzed here, we will do it in depth when the documentation arrives, then there will necessarily be an appearance of the candidate to be ambassador and then we will decide if he is the ideal person or not to occupy The charge.
One can speculate, but the attribution of appointing ambassadors and consuls general belongs to the President of the Republic, that is, it is not up to us as legislators to designate or propose a person.
Legislators are active on the issue, in Mexico it seems the opposite
If one of our foreign policy principles is non-intervention, I believe that we cannot take the activism of other parliaments. In the United States, its Foreign Relations Commission is very active in this type of crisis, but they do not have that principle of non-intervention in their Constitution. The case of the United Kingdom is also different.
