Within the framework of the meeting held this Thursday between the leaders Ivan Duque and Joe Biden on the White House, the latter took the opportunity to announce that he will designate Colombia as a main ally extra-nato, which would give the country a status of greater military and defense advantages.
The announcement was made by President Biden during the talk that both leaders had in his private office.
“This legislation raises Colombia’s relationship with the US to the highest of these 200 years” of bilateral ties, said Duque, in statements to the press.
(See: Government announced 200,000 vacancies for young people between 18 and 28 years old).
It is important to remember that Colombia is a global partner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 2017 and is the main ally of the United States in Latin America.
For a few days, in addition, there is already a bill in the US Congress that lays the foundations for the future connection of Colombia.
This would be one of the most important foreign policy and bilateral relations decisions in the history between both nations, not only because of the times of war uncertainty between Ukraine and Russia, but also because of the access door that is opened to Colombia in matters of security and defense.
(See: Colombia will receive loans for orange economy and climate action).
This new status, known by its acronym in English as NNAM, is only held by 17 nations in the world, of these, two South American: Argentina and Brazil. The rest of the countries include Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, New Zealand, Bahrain, the Philippines, Thailand, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia and Qatar, the most recent.
Thus, the extra allies of the North Atlantic bloc can access US war material, receive loans for equipment and research materials, privileges in space technology purchase procedures and participate in cooperative projects with the US Department of Defense.
THE LEGISLATIVE PROJECT
Democratic Senator Bob Menéndez presented a few days ago to the american congress a bipartisan project in which he seeks to advance the appointment of Colombia as this extra ally of the continental bloc, something that, in his opinion, could also represent the arrival of more foreign investment in the country and can strengthen the effort of the United States to implement the peace agreements.
MIGRATION AND VACCINES
During the bilateral meeting, the US president announced a new regional Migration Initiative, of which more details will be known, and hopes to have it ready for the Summit of the Americas.
Likewise, he also announced the donation of two million vaccines against covid-19 for the country.
(See: Duque commits to protect 30% of the Colombian marine area).
Duque arrived in Washington, the US capital, early in the day and throughout the morning held bipartisan meetings with members of Congress, such as senators Marco Rubio, Robert Menendez, Robert Portman, and Timothy Kaine.
Meeting of President Duque with US politicians.
private file
(See: Duque Government estimates compliance with 80% of commitments with the OECD).
During his work visit, Duque is accompanied by a delegation made up of the Foreign Minister and Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez; the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Juan Carlos Pinzón; the chief of staff of the Presidency, María Paula Correa, and the defense ministers, Diego Molano; of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, María Ximena Lombana, and of Environment and Sustainable Development, Carlos Eduardo Correa.
