Mexico’s U.N. ambassador visits Princeton area

Navarrete outlines his country’s foreign policy and commitment to democracy at the Tournament Players Club at Jasna Polana.

By: George Frey
   LAWRENCE — The Mexican ambassador to the United Nations outlined President Vicente Fox’s foreign policy and commitment to democracy to area business leaders Friday.
   Jorge Eduardo Navarrete spoke to a roundtable organized by Ken Clark International, a Lawrenceville-based executive search firm, at the Tournament Players Club at Jasna Polana.
   The ambassador also reviewed President Fox’s current talks with President George Bush, and the general economic and political climate between the two countries and domestically in Mexico. Mr. Fox and Mr. Bush met last week to discuss improving relations between the two countries. They also discussed immigration, and the scant progress the two countries have made in legalizing the many Mexicans who live in the United States illegally.
   "Mr. Fox has a different emphasis in how to respond to the populous," Mr. Navarrete said. "The two previous presidents thought they knew what the aspirations and needs of the people of Mexico were. The present administration knows they have to listen to what people need every day."
   Ken Clark, the roundtable’s organizer, said he hosts two of the roundtables every year and that he tries to find a speaker of international political, social or economic importance to speak at the event. He has hosted ambassadors from Poland and Sweden in the past, he said.
   "Most of my clients are in the health-care industry," Mr. Clark said. "With NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) this is certainly of interest to them.
   "The principal interest here is probably immigration," Mr. Clark continued. "This provides added value and services to clients above and beyond the normal work we do with them."
   John Wille, the director of Transkin Immuno in Trenton, a company trying to develop better trans-dermal drug treatments through skin therapies, asked Mr. Navarrete about the present brain-drain in Mexico. "As I see it, the export of their own homegrown technology will stymie their own economy," Mr. Wille said. "The (Mexican) government can make funds available to develop technology internally."
   Mr. Navarrete responded that it is "time to put the accent" on Mexican education and research in order for the country to become more developed. He expressed the country’s dedication to becoming a better neighbor to the United States and the rest of the world by emphasizing the importance of issues like human rights, crime and corruption, immigration, economic growth and the environment, which will better Mexico’s international perception.
   "(Mexico) wants to see a safer, more peaceful world, where economic development is shared, where so called globalization works for all," Mr. Navarrete said. "If globalization doesn’t work for all, then it won’t work for anyone."