South Korea and Mexico Finish Investment Treaty Talks

Mexico City — South Korea and Mexico have concluded negotiations to revise their bilateral investment treaty, South Korea’s government said, around a 24 September 2026 summit between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. A bilateral investment treaty, often called a BIT, is an agreement between two countries that sets rules for how each side treats investors and investments from the other — including protections against unfair treatment, rules on moving money out of the country, and how disputes are resolved.

The two sides have not yet formally signed the revised treaty. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and Korean news outlets said the countries will now run their domestic legal steps so the revised agreement can be signed and take effect as soon as possible.

What was renegotiated

The existing Korea–Mexico investment promotion and protection agreement was signed in 2000 and entered into force in 2002. Talks to modernize it began in 2019. After seven years, negotiators settled the remaining sticking points as a package during Lee’s state visit, according to Wi Sung-lac, director of South Korea’s National Security Office, who briefed reporters in Mexico City.

According to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, as reported by The Herald Business and The Asia Business Daily, the revised text clarifies the host country’s legitimate right to regulate — meaning the government’s power to make rules in the public interest — while strengthening protections for Korean investors. Those protections include clearer rules on recovering invested funds and compensation for losses. The update also tightens dispute procedures to block indiscriminate lawsuits by shell companies (firms that exist mainly on paper), guarantees the transfer of investment funds even during a foreign-exchange crisis, and adds treaty-based remedies against excessive tax measures.

Mexico is South Korea’s largest trading and investment partner in Latin America, the Foreign Ministry said, with many Korean companies operating there. Officials presented the concluded talks as strengthening the legal foundation for that investment.

What else the summit produced

The investment-treaty breakthrough was one piece of a larger summit package. Yonhap reported that the leaders adopted a Korea–Mexico Joint Action Plan 2026⁠–⁠2030 covering advanced industries including artificial intelligence, digital technology, aerospace and defense. They also signed a total of 16 or 17 memorandums of understanding and related documents — short, often non-binding cooperation papers — across economy, defense, aerospace, AI and other areas, according to Korean reporting. The two countries’ government-backed export-import banks agreed to create a $100 million credit line to be passed on as loans to businesses, Seoul Economic Daily reported. The leaders also adopted a joint declaration on AI cooperation.

Those side deals are separate from the investment treaty itself. A memorandum of understanding can be signed at a ceremony while a treaty text that still needs ratification is only “concluded” as a negotiation.

What happens next

For the revised treaty, each country must complete its internal process, formally sign, and bring the agreement into force under its own law. Until then, the 2002 treaty remains the operative investment pact. Neither government has given a date; South Korea says both sides aim to sign it and bring it into force as soon as possible.