| Press Statement Richard Boucher, Spokesman Washington, DC March 19, 2001 The United States and Mexico Agree on a Framework For Mexico to Deliver Rio Grande Water to the United StatesThe United States and Mexico have agreed upon a framework to ensure that Mexico delivers to the United States 600,000 acre-feet of water in partial fulfillment of its obligation under the 1944 Treaty between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Mexican States Relating to Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande, satisfying the instructions given during the recent meeting between President George W. Bush and President Vicente Fox in San Cristobal, Guanajuato, on February 16. Based on studies of both nations’ Sections of the International Boundary and Water Commission, the United States and Mexico adopted a framework that will permit Mexico to make water deliveries in partial satisfaction of its outstanding obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty. In this manner, the problem of the allocation of waters of the Rio Grande to the United States for this season has been resolved, and a basis has been established to resolve water deliveries to the United States in the medium and long term. The discussions, held in Washington, D.C. March 16, 2001, included participation by high-level officials of the U.S. Department of State, Department of Interior, and Environmental Protection Agency and of Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations, National Water Commission, and Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, as well as the International Boundary and Water Commission, and took place in a spirit of friendship and cooperation that marks the bilateral relationship. In keeping with that spirit, the two governments also agreed to study jointly ways to identify measures of cooperation with respect to drought management and sustainable basin management. |
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