Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, arrived at the White House this Thursday to meet with his US counterpart, Joe Bidenand address bilateral relations and issues such as climate change, the energy transition, peace efforts, anti-drug policy, and trade and investment opportunities.
(The warning Biden was given about President Petro.)
The President, invited by Biden to visit the US, entered the presidential headquarters in Washington at around 2:30 pm (1:30 pm Colombian time).
“It is a meeting of two people who are different, obviously, who have some points in common on the international agenda. Undoubtedly the climate issue is a common agenda between President Biden and us”, stated the President in Washington, before the presidential appointment.
He explained that “there are undoubtedly differences” and between the two governments and referred to the policy against drugs. “We believe that the war on drugs has failed. These 50 years show an absolutely disastrous balance in numbers, both here in the United States and in all of our Latin America.” held.
(New accusation from Peru to Petro: ‘Disrespects international standards’).
“So we want to open the discussion on this issue and how international drug policy is articulated with the growth of violence throughout the Americas and violence in Colombia,” declared the Head of State and added that “The path to peace involves understanding these circumstances that humanity lives in a different way.”
He recalled that in 1961 the then US President, John F. Kennedy, visited Colombia and promoted the Alliance for Progress.
(Petro’s proposal for Venezuela to rejoin the OAS).
“I believe that an alliance for progress is essential today, which, just as he proposed, begins with a democratization of the agrarian world, so that the peasantry can have access to fertile land,” indicated President Petro, and stressed that “The more food we produce, the less drugs we will export.”
Presidents Petro and Biden began with a private meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, and will later have an extended meeting with their government teams.
BRIEFCASE
