COLOMBIA-CHILE |
Drawing closer. Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos signed a ‘strategic association’ accord with his Chilean peer Sebastián Piñera in Santiago on 16 August. The accord goes beyond the free trade agreement (FTA) struck in 2009: to embrace bilateral cooperation agreements in the political, energy, social, cultural, and security spheres. Both men are staunch proponents of the Pacific Alliance, the objective of which is to deepen integration between the four signatory nations - Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico - on all fronts, permitting the free movement of people, capital, goods and services. Santos said that Colombia was keen to be associated with countries that serve as an example: “Chile is an example in Latin America of how to do things well,” he said, in a clear gesture of support for his beleaguered counterpart.
Interestingly, on the same day, Colombia’s foreign minister, María Angela Holguín, in an interview with the national daily
El Tiempo, stressed that while bilateral relations with Venezuela had improved dramatically, they were “still not ideal… (in terms of) cooperation between two countries that face problems as tough as drug-trafficking and armed groups in the region.” She added: “trade is important, but security is the priority,” in ties with Venezuela.
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