The Diplomat
The first day of the official visit of the President of Colombia, Iván Duque, resulted yesterday in the signing of several binding agreements to strengthen political cooperation and facilitate mutual investments.
Duque has been in Spain since yesterday as part of a tour of several European countries – including France, the United Kingdom and Italy – and coinciding with the celebration of the Madrid Book Fair 2021, in which Colombia is Guest of Honor.
The President was received in audience by King Philip VI at La Zarzuela Palace. During the meeting -attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; the Spanish Ambassador to Colombia, Marcos Gómez; and the Colombian Ambassador to Spain, Luis Guillermo Plata-, the two heads of state discussed “the opportunities offered by Colombia as the main investment destination in Latin America, the importance of multilateralism, the safe reactivation after the pandemic and Ibero-American integration”, as stated by Duque through the Presidency’s website.
Later, Iván Duque was received at the Moncloa Palace by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. During the meeting -postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic-, the two leaders signed four bilateral cooperation instruments, among them a Joint Declaration for the creation of a reinforced framework for political cooperation, which includes the setting up of a High Level Commission and deepens the strategic partnership relationship, raising the level of dialogue between both nations.
In addition, Sánchez and Duque signed an Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments (APPRI) that reinforces the already existing one in this sense and will make possible the existence of a bilateral framework “more balanced, transparent, impartial and effective in the Spanish-Colombian commercial relations”, according to Sánchez. Spanish companies are the second largest global investors in Colombia and wish to continue advancing their presence in sectors such as infrastructure, engineering, tourism, renewable energy, digital transformation, gastronomy or the food industry. In 2020 they reached 1,811 million dollars. Apart from that, Spain is currently the main European investor in Colombia and the second in the world, after the United States.
The two leaders also signed a Cooperation Agreement on the Fight against Crime and Security and another agreement between the Cervantes Institute and the Caro y Cuervo Institute of Colombia. Pedro Sánchez also took advantage of the meeting to thank the “extraordinary effort that Colombia is making” in welcoming and assisting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and the approval of the Temporary Protection Statute for Venezuelan Migrants, which “demonstrates Colombia’s solidarity towards the Venezuelan people, betting on the transition from a fundamentally humanitarian response to an approach combined with socioeconomic integration”.
After the meeting in Moncloa, King Philip and Queen Letizia hosted a lunch at the Royal Palace in Madrid in honor of Ivan Duque and the First Lady, Maria Juliana Ruiz, which was also attended by Sánchez and the Foreign Ministers of the two countries and during which the Monarch stressed the ties that unite the two countries, which “stem from a shared history of three centuries”, and highlighted “the valuable role of Spanish Cooperation, which today acts in the most disadvantaged areas of Colombia, getting involved in the development of their communities, in the welfare of refugees and migrants, or in the comprehensive implementation of the Peace Agreements“. The visit of the President of Colombia coincides with the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Spain. The Official State Gazette published yesterday the awarding of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic to Iván Duque.
“Spain has supported Colombia in difficult times, including the pandemic”
At the end of these institutional meetings, Iván Duque participated in a conference-colloquium of the Forum America tribune, organized by Nueva Economía Fórum and presented by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in which he assured that Colombia continues to be “a strategic ally” of Spain and that both countries have raised their relationship “to the most important level in recent years”.
“Colombia and Spain’s relationship is not circumscribed to parties or ideologies”, Duque assured. “The transformation” that Colombia is undergoing “would not be possible without Spain, because Spain has supported Colombia in difficult times and because, in addition, in the year of the pandemic and in this 2021, Spain is constituted as the largest foreign investor as a European nation in this territory” the president continued. “Spain should invest in Colombia” because “Colombia has solid institutions, a democracy with a historical tradition and a government and institutions that are committed to private initiative”, he added.
Duque’s day concluded with a meeting with Mario Vargas Llosa in his capacity as president of the International Freedom Foundation (FIL), a meeting with Colombian journalists, a meeting with the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, and an official dinner at the Colombian Embassy with political leaders, former Spanish presidents, opinion leaders and directors of Spanish media.
