Event for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Australia

Simon Froude
Director-General, National Archives of Australia

Parkes, ACT

17 March 2026 
 

Good evening.

Your Excellency, Mr Ernesto Cespedes Oropeza, Ambassador of Mexico to Australia.

The Honourable Milton Dick, Speaker of the House.

Member of our Advisory Council, Mr David Smith MP.

Mr George Mina, Deputy Secretary, Trade and Investment Group, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Distinguished guests, colleagues and friends.

Yuumma (hello) and welcome to National Archives of Australia. We are delighted to share this occasion with all of you.

I’d like to begin by formally acknowledging the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, recognising their enduring connection to land, sea and community.

We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and uphold these rights and cultural obligations within our collections.

On behalf of National Archives of Australia, I congratulate the Embassy and your government on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Mexico.

In March 1966, our 2 governments formally established diplomatic relations.

National Archives records captured that moment through official correspondence, cablegrams and letters of credence.

In our collection there is a cablegram which records formal approval for the exchange of diplomatic missions between Australia and Mexico. A brief message – concise, official, understated – but significant in consequence.

It marked the beginning of a relationship that has endured for 6 decades. It is a remarkable achievement, and this occasion deserves to be celebrated.

Since the establishment of missions in Canberra and Mexico City in 1966, the relationship between Australia and Mexico has developed with consistency and purpose – across trade, scientific cooperation, multilateral engagement, people-to people connections and cultural exchange.

That continuity does not happen by accident. It is the product of sustained commitment by both governments over 6 decades.

National Archives of Australia is the Australian Government’s lead agency for the management and preservation of Commonwealth records.

We hold over 54 million records spanning more than a century of government activity – we are the evidentiary foundation of Australia's public administration, our democratic history, our national identity and how we continue to grow.

Our mandate extends beyond preservation. We set government-wide information management standards and policy, ensuring that the records of today are managed with the same rigour that will make them accessible and meaningful tomorrow.

Archives are instruments of understanding between nations and our collaboration with the Embassy of Mexico reflects our outward-looking mission.

International collaboration is an important part of that mandate.

National Archives maintains an active international presence, consistent with the broader foreign policy objectives of the Australian Government.

Our international engagement serves a clear purpose: to advance the development of international best practice archival standards and promote professional knowledge transfer.

We strengthen awareness of Australia's democratic heritage and its role in the international order.

We contribute, on behalf of the Australian Government, to leadership within the global archival community.

Bilateral initiatives such as the one celebrated today are a practical expression of those objectives.

To mark this 60th anniversary, National Archives has made available to the Mexican Embassy a selection of original government records relating to the establishment and early conduct of the bilateral relationship.

Our collaboration over the past 12 months, and indeed over the past 10 years, speaks to the heart of our commitment. We’ve been delighted to welcome interns from the Embassy of Mexico to learn and work side-by-side with our records team in a spirit of mutual cooperation.

Tonight, we have a selection of those records available for viewing. You will find these records fascinating for their contents and historical significance, while also showcasing the methods used for international communication at the time, such as cablegrams.

As primary sources, these records provide unique insight, through written correspondence and images, into how diplomatic relations are formally established – how 2 governments on opposite sides of the world chose to build a formal relationship, and did so with care.

They are living evidence of decisions made, hands extended in friendship and a partnership that has endured.

The selection of records on display tonight includes:

• correspondence and formal documentation relating to the appointment of the first Australian Ambassador to Mexico and the first Mexican Ambassador to Australia, including letters of credence
• diplomatic cables and savingrams recording the negotiations that led to the opening of both embassies – the foundational communications of this relationship.

There are also records of early civil aviation discussions, including Australian interest in trade negotiations, and documentation of Qantas's inaugural service into Mexico City.

We are proud that these records articulate the story of this relationship – not just for government representatives and historians, but for future generations of Mexicans and Australians alike.

The examples I refer you to are just a snapshot of our recorded histories displayed tonight. I encourage everyone to enjoy the records.

I now formally mark our cooperation and this commemoration with a specially preserved photograph from our collection of a cultural memory, and present this to His Excellency, the Ambassador.

The photograph acknowledges the 60th anniversary of Mexico–Australia diplomatic relations and the role National Archives has played in preserving the evidence of that history.

Your Excellency, on behalf of National Archives of Australia, I thank the Embassy of Mexico for the opportunity to contribute to this commemoration. Muchas gracias!

Here’s to the next 60 years of friendship, cooperation and discovery.

Media contact

National Archives of Australia Media Team

Phone: 0417 247 157
Email: media@naa.gov.au