Colombia, Venezuela to restore ties

COLOMBIA: Colombia and Venezuela Tuesday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations. The agreement was reached between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez after a long meeting in Santa Marta, a Colombian city on the Caribbean coast.

“We are here seeking the reestablishment of relations between two sister countries,” Santos told reporters before the summit.

“We shall begin patiently to rebuild what was torn apart,” Chavez said.

Both presidents told a post-summit news conference that they also agreed to create five working commissions to solve the bilateral debt issue, boost commercial ties, reach an economic complementation agreement, develop a working plan for social investment and establish a security mechanism.

Bilateral trade plummeted from seven billion US dollars to 700 million dollars last year because of the world economic crisis and soured bilateral ties.

Venezuela severed ties with Colombia on July 22 after Bogota accused Caracas of hosting guerilla chiefs in its territory and took the case to international organizations.

But with Colombian President Santos taking office August 7, tensions between the two countries began to ebb. Santos, unlike his predecessor Alvaro Uribe, showed himself to be more practical and voiced willingness to mend bilateral relations.

Santos’ conciliatory tone was welcomed by Chavez, who sent his foreign minister Nicolas Maduro to Santos’ inauguration ceremony and directed him to arrange a bilateral summit. Besides, leaders of the region played an important role in efforts to mediate between the two sides.

After Nestor Kirchner, secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations, visited Venezuela on Aug. 5-6, Chavez changed his position and sent his foreign minister to Santos’ inauguration ceremony.

Xinhua