Gustavo Petro has said that he wants to work with the United States as an “equal partner”.
of the United States president Joe Biden meet Colombia’s new leftist president for the first time Gustavo Petronsays AFP.
President Petro will travel to Washington next week for his first meeting with President Biden, the two countries announced on Friday.
Petro has said he wants to work with the United States as an “equal partner” to create infrastructure in rural Colombia, where many farmers rely on coca leaves as their only viable crop.
Biden will welcome Petro on Thursday to discuss key issues in Colombia, including climate change, Colombia’s rampant drug trade and migration out of the country, the White House announced Friday.
The leaders also plan to discuss how to “advance democratic values and human and workers’ rights in the region and the world,” the White House statement said.
According to Colombia, Petro’s visit to the United States, called by Biden, “will be a kind of milestone in the strengthening of relations between Colombia and the United States at the present time.”
Petro was elected president last June. Petro is the former mayor of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and a former leftist. Petro got the majority of votes on his side in the second round of the elections.
Petro got his hands on a country whose economy was left in a miserable state by the coronavirus epidemic, where there is a lot of violence linked to the drug trade and whose people are fed up with the political elite.
The country saw large anti-government protests in the spring of last year.
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