This Tuesday the president of the National Assembly received the Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti at the Palacio de los Escudos. Previously, Benedetti was received in the Federal Legislative Shields room by the head deputy of the Bloc of the Fatherland, Diosdado Cabello.
Benedetti thanked for the welcome and stressed that the issue of the border has to be agreed upon
Benedetti arrived in the country last Sunday, and was received by the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, this Monday at the Miraflores Palace, to whom he handed over the diplomatic credentials as Colombian ambassador to Venezuela.
On his first official visit, Ambassador Benedetti plans to coordinate the first meeting between Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro.
“I will propose that this meeting could be at the beginning of October at a border site between the two nations,” he said on Monday in his meeting with the first National President at the Miraflores Palace.
From the Simón Bolívar Room, he spoke with the Venezuelan president about the map of cooperation between the two countries and “about the urgency of reestablishing the bonds of friendship that should never have been broken.”
Maduro will propose the creation of a large North Santander and Táchira binational economic zone.
It is estimated that the meeting between the two leaders will take place next October. The meeting would take place in the border area between the two nations.
The ambassador mentioned that among the main tasks are organizing the embassy, the consulates “which are quite deteriorated and forgotten by the previous government. First, fix that. And second, try to open the border as quickly as possible.”
He assured that upon his arrival the most difficult thing for the process of relations has been “the infrastructure, just as they left it here in Venezuela, which “is completely thrown away, forgotten by the previous government.
The Colombian diplomat indicated that he has an agenda of topics that will be addressed in the meeting with the Venezuelan president, such as: “an economic zone, legislation that allows the two countries to invest in infrastructure, schools, hospitals, bridges, that radiate and impact on the development of the region.
Armando Benedetti was appointed Colombian ambassador to Venezuela by Gustavo Petro, on August 11. Diplomatic relations were fractured in 2019, during the period of Iván Duque.
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