US President Joe Biden will receive his Colombian counterpart Iván Duque on March 10, in what will be his first White House meeting with a South American president since he came to power in January 2021, his spokesperson, Jen Psaki, reported on Wednesday. .
In the year in which the two countries celebrate the bicentennial of their bilateral relations, Biden and Duque will address a range of regional and global issues “such as Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military invasion of Ukraine, the promotion of democracy, security and prosperity in the hemisphere,” said a White House statement.
This week Colombia asked before the UN General Assembly that Russia “response” for the consequences that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will have for the economy and international law, after two years of devastating covid-19 pandemic.
Biden and Duque will reaffirm “bilateral relations and address the response to covid-19 and preparation for future pandemics, economic recovery and regional responses to migration,” said the White House, which hopes to “deepen the strategic partnership” between the two countries.
In Bogotá, the presidency affirmed that Duque considers the bilateral meeting “very significant” for Colombia, “at such a challenging moment for humanity, which represents a step forward to reaffirm the historic relations between nations and ratifies that Colombia is the main ally of the United States in the region.
Biden receives Duque three days before the legislative elections in the South American country and two weeks after the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menéndez, announced that he would present a bill supported by Democrats and Republicans that “will formally designate Colombia as an important ally of the United States outside of NATO”.
The goal, according to this influential senator, is to strengthen the association “on issues of international security and defense, as well as human and labor rights” and create a new business fund to catalyze investments in Colombian companies and “promote efforts to diversify chains supply from the United States and stop depending on China.
