Colombian President Petro meets Venezuelan President Maduro at the border

Meeting at the Atanasio Girardot International Bridge, which connects neighboring countries Colombia and Venezuela, the leaders agreed to further increase bilateral trade.

In a statement from Colombia, a bilateral agreement was signed with Venezuela to increase trade between the two countries to $1.8 billion this year.

In the joint statement issued after the meeting, “By 2023, bilateral trade aims to continue its growth trend and increase to total trade growth of $1.7-1.8 billion. The legal framework must be deepened to consolidate productive diversification, access to the common market and development”. statement was included.

Colombian President Petro shared a photo with Maduro on his Twitter account and said: “A partial trade and investment protection agreement has been signed between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Colombia.”

The President of Venezuela, Maduro, also affirmed that they continue to make history on his social media account, saying: “We signed the Commercial Partial Coverage Agreement No. 28 with the President on the border that connects Venezuela and Colombia. “This treaty represents a new step towards greater prosperity for our peoples,” he said.

On November 2, 2022, Petro became the first Colombian leader to visit Venezuela at the presidential level in 6 years.

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA RELATIONS

Relations between Venezuela and Colombia, which have a close culture and common history, soured in 2019 with Colombia’s support for US-backed Guaidó against the Maduro government, with Maduro announcing in February 2019 that he had severed diplomatic relations. with Colombia, which he accused. to start the attacks against his country.

At the time, Colombia, led by right-wing former president Iván Duque, who had close relations with the US government, recognized Guaidó, who attempted a military coup against the Maduro government in April 2019 and declared himself the “legitimate head of state”. ” in Venezuela had given.

One of the first actions of the leftist Petro, who won the second electoral round on June 19, 2022 in Colombia and assumed the Presidency on August 7, was to appoint an ambassador to establish bilateral relations with the neighboring country, which had been broken for 3 years.

On August 11, Petro and Maduro announced that they had mutually agreed ambassadors, and on August 29 the ambassadors arrived at their posts.

The Atanasio Girardot International Bridge, also known as the Tienditas Bridge, which connects neighboring countries Colombia and Venezuela, was put into service with a ceremony on January 2. (AA)