In the Miraflores Palace, the President of the Republic of Colombia Gustavo Petro made his second official visit to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.
Colombia and Venezuela will continue to evaluate the common and cooperation agenda between the sister nations with the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros, this extraordinary bilateral meeting is also held six days after the governments of both countries put the bridge into operation binational Atanasio Girardot, that connects the department of Norte de Santander with the state of Táchira, which accounts for one more step in the normalization of their relations, a new step in the objective of the government of the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros and of his counterpart Gustavo Petro to advance regional integration and the full reestablishment of diplomatic, political, and commercial relations between Colombia and VenezuelaVenezuela.
Just as an extraordinary visit took place last Sunday, January 1, that will make it possible to evaluate and also materialize the commitments of the governments of Colombia and Venezuela and the desire of presidents Gustavo Petro and Nicolás Maduro to advance in the normalization of relations, a job which also allows us to guarantee peace, security on our borders and other benefits directly to the peoples of Venezuela and Colombia.
They evaluated this Saturday, January 7, the binational agenda assuming state commitments, which also seeks to recover the development routes of sustainability and, above all, to work to reduce the inequality gap at the borders, the greater integration between Colombia and Venezuela will also allow promoting the productive chains, generate greater added value and advance in the industrial complementarity proposals that advance and materialize.
And it is that both leaders, both Gustavo Petro and President Nicolás Maduro Moros, had already agreed to undertake joint actions in the border, in addition to recovering its commercial vigor, also agreed to rebuild intelligence relations to strike the owners of drug trafficking capital.
Likewise, both nations seek region to strengthen a common policy in defense of the Amazon rainforest as discussed at the COP27 United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 2022 held in Egypt.
Likewise, the will to resume the friendship ties between Venezuela and Colombia, interrupted since 2019, was reflected in the telephone conversation held between presidents Gustavo Petro and Nicolás Maduro respectively on June 22 when the willingness to move towards peace was reaffirmed.
Great advances have been made after the reestablishment of commercial and political diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia. In the diplomatic area, consular relations have also been strengthened, as well as attention to the migrant population of Colombia and Venezuela, multilateralism, re-entry of Venezuela to the Andean community of nations that represents good news for South America; this has been evaluated by both leaders, the reconsideration of the inter-American system of Human Rights; In this sense, the head of state Nicolás Maduro has indicated that he has been very receptive and that will be the case on this interesting topic raised by President Gustavo Petro.
In addition to strengthening the community of Latin American and Caribbean States CELAC and advancing plans for the recovery of the Amazon and under this premise strengthening the organization of the Amazon cooperation treaty; Another of the positive advances has been the commercial exchange between Colombia and Venezuela, estimated at over 600 million at the end of the year 2022 after the reopening of the common border that occurred on September 26, important steps have been taken in trade, It is also estimated that the trade balance rose in the first months and this has great potential, this was reported by President Nicolás Maduro Moros when noting the progress of the work agenda between the two governments, the context of the new stage of bilateral cooperation, the relaunch of economic and commercial activity was strengthened.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the presidency of Colombia has meant important changes for life and the search for peace, this was pointed out by President Nicolás Maduro; He also pointed out the solidarity expressed through our country’s accompaniment to the negotiations between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army. We are giving our full support to all the peace initiatives, including the one that was installed in Venezuela with the peace talks with the national liberation army.
The president also pointed out that with the spirit of the liberator Simón Bolívar, Colombia and Venezuela embrace a reunion between brothers, an action that not only represents a victory for both peoples but also for Latin America and the Caribbean.
