On the eve of an enormous meeting of diplomats from about 100 nations in Mexico City last week to discuss development assistance and aid to poor countries, a small band of foreign ministers quietly got together to brainstorm how to increase their collective voice within multilateral organizations.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and the top diplomats of four other “middle-power” G20 members met in Mexico City on April 13-14 to set the parameters and goals of a new consultative group. They also agreed on a new acronym: MIKTA, standing for Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia.

The countries banded together into a single informal grouping by virtue of “common coincidences” their economies share, and the similar role each plays in their respective regions, explained Mexican Ambassador to South Korea Jose Luis Bernal in an interview with The Korea Herald on Wednesday at his office.

“Within the G20, the larger economies make decisions without consulting with everyone else,” he said. “We are trying to increase the volume of our voice. Your voice cannot be heard if you are speaking by yourself.” 

On Mexico’s participation, the ambassador said: “The multilateral reason comes from the fact that Mexico is part of the G20. We feel that within the G20 ― another grouping within the G20 is the BRICS ― Mexico should look for countries with which we have coincidences. Yes, there are differences, but we share these coincidences in the role that we’re playing in the world and within our regions.”

Bernal mentioned specific countries that are playing unique and important roles in connecting their respective regions: Turkey connecting Europe, South Korea connecting East Asia, and Mexico connecting Latin America.

Generally speaking, a middle power possesses considerable economic clout but not as much, as the global heavyweights in the G7. Many of those G20 countries are also member states of the OECD.

All five share common approaches toward international trade, and all have independent central banks and exercise an independent monetary policy, he noted. A third commonality is that all five emerged with relatively healthy economies after the global financial crisis in 2009-2010.

“These five countries resolved common issues on which we can coordinate and communicate on a multilateral basis (at the meeting in Mexico City),” Bernal said, adding that a somewhat unexpected outcome from the two-day meeting was how much the countries learned and vis-a-vis each other. “We needed to look at not only what we can do collectively, but also what we can do among each other, too.”

For example, Mexico and Turkey will redouble efforts to establish direct flights, and Mexico and South Korea will further narrow their focus on bilateral trade.

Bernal emphasized that MIKTA would be “an informal and inclusive” grouping with a focus on increasing their collective voice in multilateral institutions on issues of common concern. The career diplomat suggested MIKTA should expand to include a country from Africa.

“South Africa, for example, is an interesting country. It plays very close to the BRICS.”

They first met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting last September. Mexico will hold the Secretary Pro tempore for this year and the foreign ministers of the five countries plan to meet during this year’s U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September and during the 26th APEC in Beijing in November. South Korea then takes up the secretariat in 2015.

Bernal said their five countries agreed on the parameters for cooperation in their second meeting. They agreed to work more closely on such issues as global governance; United Nations reform including the U.N. Security Council; human rights and democracy; cybersecurity; climate change; migration; and international security issues, including regional hot spots like Syria, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula.

“The indigenous source of Mexico’s participation is because Mexico is becoming a relevant economy in the world. More and more, we see that we should play a bigger role ― not to influence, but to have a presence in international events, and this we know we can do only if we coordinate with other similar countries.”

For South Korea, the grouping could play a role in widening the country’s diplomatic aperture beyond a traditional focus on relations with the four surrounding major powers, namely Russia, China, Japan and the U.S. In recent years, academics in South Korea have actively discussed the country’s expansive role in international organizations and emergence as a middle power.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)