Bogota, April 15. The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, will undertake a trip to the US this Sunday for the first bilateral meeting with his counterpart Joe Biden and other senior representatives in which he will seek to transfer his efforts to achieve total peace, drug policy or the fight against the climate crisis.
The meeting with Biden will be the central event of Petro’s trip, which will be in the United States from Monday to Friday, where he will visit New York, Stanford (California) and Washington and which, in the words of the government spokesman, Alfonso Prada, is a “strong support for the bilateral relations of the United States and Colombia”.
During the meeting, both leaders “will discuss how the United States and Colombia can continue to deepen our strong bilateral relationship by advancing in areas of mutual national interest, including promoting a greater economy and security,” the press secretary of Colombia said during the announcement. the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre.
Thus they will discuss “joint efforts to combat climate change, counter drug trafficking, address our regional migration challenge and promote democratic values and human and labor rights in the region and the world.”
“It is a key moment to strengthen the relationship and mutual cooperation between the two countries, not only in the fight against drug trafficking but also in the protection of the Amazon, climate change and rural development,” said Petro, after the Casa’s announcement. Blanca of the meeting that will take place next Thursday morning in the Oval Office.
The arrival of Petro to the Presidency seems to have strengthened relations with the White House, diminished by the closeness that the previous Colombian president, Iván Duque, had with Donald Trump and that caused Biden not to receive him until March of last year.
Petro is also traveling accompanied by his main ministers, Foreign Relations, Álvaro Leyva; Defense, Iván Velásquez, and Justice, Néstor Osuna; together with the president of the House of Representatives, David Racero; the Chief of Staff, Laura Sarabia, and the Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murillo.
UN AND ACADEMIC TALK
The trip “contemplates meetings with the main political and business leaders of that country, academic activities, their participation in international scenarios and meetings with representatives of the Colombian community residing in that country,” reported the Presidency.
It will begin in New York, where on Monday he will give a speech at the Opening Session of the 22nd Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach.”
At the UN headquarters, he will meet with the Secretary General, António Guterres, and the President of the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), Lachezara Stoeva, and finally, at the Council of the Americas think tank, he will hold a meeting with analysts, diplomats and businessmen on relations between the US and Colombia.
Petro will lead a colloquium on Tuesday at Stanford University entitled “Challenges of climate change, economic growth and social inclusion that have historically plagued development in Latin America.”
AGENDA IN THE CAPITAL
On Wednesday, Petro will be in Washington to speak at the Plenary Session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
And the next day, before the meeting with Biden, he will be on Capitol Hill (legislative headquarters) to meet with party leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, and will also meet with the Democratic leader and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
At night, he will offer a dinner at the ambassador’s residence to a hundred Colombian residents and businessmen, and finally on Friday, before his return, he will meet with “a group of important businessmen and presidents of multinational companies convened by think tanks such as the Institute of Peace, Inter-American Dialogue, Atlantic Council and the Wilson Center”. EFE
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