Mexico and France will exchange a pair of Aztec codices to celebrate the bicentenary of their diplomatic relations in 2026. Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, and her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met this Friday at the National Palace and agreed that Mexico will lend France the Boturini Codex in exchange for the European country sending the Azcatitlán Codex to Mexico. The presidents assured that the gesture is also part of the relaunch of their countries’ trade relations and the signing of numerous agreements on education, the environment and feminist diplomacy.
Sheinbaum explained after meeting with Macron that the temporary transfer of pre-Hispanic documents has great importance for Mexico. “These codes are fundamental because they represent the living memory of Mexico and the deep roots of our identity,” he said. For several years the Mexican government has been asking various European countries for the return of pre-Hispanic pieces extracted from Mexican territory during the colonial period. “There is no future of shared prosperity without recognition of history,” the president added.
The French president underlined that the exchange of codes is part of “a new dynamic with respect to heritage and culture”. Macron defended the cooperation his country has given in the return of archaeological finds and the surveillance it maintains over their illegal trafficking in Europe. “We will fight against all forms of trafficking and guarantee transparency regarding the departure of pieces from a territory”, he assured.
The Codex Azcatitlán recounts pre-Hispanic history from the founding of Tenochtitlan to the fall of the Aztec empire. It has been in the National Library of France, in Paris, since 1898 and represents an important testimony to the origins of pre-Hispanic Mexico and the resistance of the Aztecs to the arrival of the Spanish. The document was in the custody of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and Lorenzo Boturini. However, at some point in the 19th century it left Mexican territory. The Boturini Codex, also known as the Pilgrimage Strip, recounts the journey of the Mexica from Aztlán to the founding of Tenochtitlan. The document is preserved in the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City.
Economic ties
Macron’s visit to Mexico also served to strengthen trade relations between the two countries. The French president announced the relaunch of the Franco-Mexican Strategic Council (CEFM), created in 2013, and which has served both countries to promote investments from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The group is tasked with identifying the potential for new economic alliances and scientific, cultural and educational cooperation. “We try to consolidate economic relations and give visibility to investors from both countries,” Macron said.
The presidents held a private meeting which was also attended by businessmen from both countries – including tycoon Carlos Slim and the president of the Business Coordinating Council, Francisco Cervantes – and in which the renewal of the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and the European Union, scheduled for February 2026, was recognized. This agreement, in force since 2000, has been redesigned over the last eight years to include the modernization of trade in the sectors of financial services, transport, e-commerce and telecommunications.
European countries updated the agreement against time before the start of Donald Trump’s administration, anticipating the global trade war that the American has been waging since his arrival in the White House. Mexico is France’s second-largest partner in Latin America, after Brazil, and boasts significant trade in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, wind energy and aerospace. Macron underlined that among the 700 French companies that have established themselves in Mexico, those in the aeronautical sector are those that generate the most jobs.
Macron arrived in Mexico after attending the start of the COP30 climate change summit in Belém, Brazil. “The climate crisis exists and its effects are increasingly tangible,” he said in front of Sheinbaum. The French president assured that Mexico and France share a common progressive agenda that they will protect.
