PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chile will work with Mexico's future government to deepen bilateral relations and promote free trade, Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero said on Tuesday.
The incoming government, headed by left-of-center President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will take office in December.
Ampuero met with his future Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard, tapped by Lopez Obrador to head his Foreign Affairs Ministry, on the sidelines of the 13th Summit of the Pacific Alliance, which concluded here on Tuesday.
"Our relationship will be maintained and there is an effort by President-elect Lopez Obrador and President (Sebastian) Pinera to strengthen it," Ampuero said.
The minister said he and Ebrard agreed that at a time of rising protectionism, it is important "to emphasize and believe in the freedom of trade, and in multilateralism."
Ampuero expressed his satisfaction with the summit, saying he was confident Mexico would continue to form part of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc, along with Colombia, Chile and Peru.
The two-day summit gathered the leaders of the four countries -- Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, Sebastian Pinera of Chile, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, and Martin Vizcarra of Peru -- to discuss deepening trade and integration, especially with the Asia-Pacific region.
The bloc forms the world's eighth largest economy. Its members together have more than 50 free trade agreements.
While members of Lopez Obrador's transition team attended the summit, he stayed away, saying he had yet to receive his accreditation as president-elect from Mexico's top electoral body.
Lopez Obrador won Mexico's July 1 presidential elections by a landslide victory, defeating three other candidates with some 53 percent of the vote.
