A handful of Mexican lawmakers formed a parliamentary friendship group on Tuesday to promote bilateral exchanges with Korean legislators.

Thirteen deputies of the lower house of the Mexican legislature held a ceremony in Mexico City, Tuesday, to launch the group, Yonhap News reported.

“Korea is an important country we can benchmark,” Gabriel de Jesus Cardenas Guizar, a deputy of the National Action Party (PAN), who will head the group, said in the ceremony. “The group will strive to make contributions to the development of relations between the two countries.

Among those attending the event was Lizbeth Loy Gamboa Song of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who is the only deputy of Korean descent in Mexico.

“I would like to contribute in cultural exchanges,” she said. “Mexicans need to emulate Koreans’ zeal to educate children.”

“Korea and Mexico are closely cooperating in such fields as environment, development cooperation and nuclear safety,” Korean Amb. to Korea Hong Seong-hoa said. “Parliamentary exchanges between the two countries will further deepen their bilateral ties.”

National Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee discussed parliamentary exchanges with leaders of the chamber of deputies and the senate in April when he visited Mexico.

Mexico is scheduled to host the 22nd annual Asia Parliamentary Forum in January.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)