MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia, Peru advance bilateral issues after a 2-year impasse

The next binational meeting is scheduled for July in Castillo's native province of Chota.

Colombian President Iván Duque Thursday met with his Peruvian counterpart Pedro Castillo Terrones at Villa de Leyva (165 kilometers north of Bogotá) to discuss the economic reactivation of the mutual border, as well as environmental issues and security matters.

Thursday's meeting should have been held two years ago, but it had to be postponed time and again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last bilateral encounter was held Aug. 27, 2019 in Pucallpa (Peru).

Duque and Castillo agreed that despite no official encounters between heads of state, work had not stopped. The Colombian leader recalled that “binational trade” has already exceeded US $ 2 billion and was confident “it will grow exponentially” in the coming years. He also spoke about the reactivation of the “binational border commission,” a space where security forces on both sides of the border share information and carry out joint efforts to fight criminal groups and drug traffickers.

“We are united to face the climate crisis, we are united to advance a climate action agenda for 2050 and 2030” and to “defeat deforestation,” added the Colombian leader.

They also discussed Venezuelan migration and called for the international community to disburse cooperation resources to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

Duque and Castillo also agreed to support Ecuador's entry into the Pacific Alliance and strengthen the current Andean Community of Nations (CAN).

“Today we are declaring war on the common enemies that we have, such as poverty, the inequalities that we have next to each of our borders,” Castillo said as he called for a “more united Latin America.”

The next binational meeting is scheduled for July in Castillo's native province of Chota.