Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez assured that Colombia does not intend to break relations with Russia

In the speech of the Colombian president, Iván Duque at the United Nations, where he spoke about the Peace Process that has been implemented for five years in the country and commented on some progress in this area.

President Iván Duque opened with a few words in which he framed his Peace with Legality program, in which he stressed the importance of recognizing construction work from all social fringes in order to “sow joy in the hearts of citizens”:

Likewise, in the review by Ivan Duque, the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, made strong statements in which he questioned much of the work that the current government has done in Colombia regarding the implementation of what was agreed in the peace accords in Havana, Cuba 5 years ago:

“They will say a lot of nice words to him and avoid the tricky issues that abound in the United Nations report,” Nebenzya said, adding, “... his Government is not able to ensure the physical safety of the participants in the peace process, nor of community leaders.”

In response to these statements by the Russian ambassador, the Colombian president responded by alluding to the fact that he welcomed the criticism to build, but then questioned the ambassador in his statements referring to the invasion that Russia has been carrying out in Ukraine for more than a month.

“... We welcome all comments constructively, but it is very important that those who are hurting a winter people today do not pretend to give messages of peace to the world, while they are committing these fratricidal acts that we all reject.”

The mood between the two sides seemed to be in high tension, so in a recent interview with Chancellor Martha Lucía Ramírez on The FM, she was asked about relations with the Eurasian country following the UN Security Council:

“When Russia has the eyes of the entire international community on it, waiting to see how we can stop this genocide that is taking place in Ukraine, they find in Colombia an escape to see if they come out to criticize the country on issues that really concern us such as drugs, the growth of illicit crops that existed during the negotiation process with the FARC that continues to produce violence in Colombia”, was Ramírez's response.

The Vice-President and Chancellor added to her statements the work they have carried out within the framework of the peace agreements with the FARC, saying that what they have done is “allocate a budget to it, create an institutional framework, create development plans with a territorial focus, launch a series of programs to incorporate all demobilized with real opportunities”.

Faced with what happened, he finally said that relations with Russia will continue to be had despite the differences: “We have the diplomatic relationship with Russia, as well as a very firm conversation with them. At that meeting I was able to tell the ambassador that Colombia will always defend its sovereignty”, and he thought to the near future: “no is something that we are considering a diplomatic rupture, if there was any reason we would think about it, but because of yesterday's statements, they took place in a geopolitical scenario.”

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