Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican Ambassador to the United States

SPEAKER: Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican Ambassador to the United States

TITLE: U.S.–Mexican Relations

Ambassador Sarukhan will discuss perennially relevant and contentious issues in U.S.–Mexican relations, such as Mexican immigration to the United States, border concerns, and trade. He will also address issues of global concern – nuclear proliferation, drug trafficking, and terrorism – touching on those areas in which he has been active during his career.

A diplomat since 1994, Sarukhan has dealt with U.S.–Mexican relations from a wide variety of posts and levels of government. Previous to his post as Ambassador, he was appointed by President Vicente Fox as Consul General of Mexico in New York City. He served as Chief of Staff for Policy Planning to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and was commissioned to Mexico City as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary on security and organized crime issues. In 1992, as Director for Inter-American Negotiation at the Foreign Ministry, Sarukhan was responsible for a wave of policy on Latin American cooperation, including the Rio Group, the G-3, and the non-proliferation Tlatelolco Treaty. Before working in government, he served as Executive Secretary of the non-governmental Bilateral Commission on the Future of Mexico–United States Relations.

Sarukhan is a professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and lectures countrywide. He serves on a number of international organizations, including the Task Force for Inter-American Security at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, and the Foreign Policy Association. Spain and Sweden have decorated him the Order of Civil Merit, Officers Degree and the Order of the Polar Star, Commanders Degree, respectively. Fulbright Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow, Sarukhan holds a Master's in U.S. Foreign Policy from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

This program was recorded live on September 10, 2007