Daniel Noboa holds his first meeting as president of Ecuador with Gustavo Petro

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboaheld this Thursday with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Pedrohis first meeting after taking office, in a ceremony held hours earlier at the headquarters of the National Assembly (Parliament).

Noboa and Petro met at Carondelet Presidential Palacelocated in the historic center of Quitowhere the respective foreign ministers were also present, Gabriela Sommerfeld It is Álvaro Leyva.

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The Colombian president was the only head of state present at Noboa’s investiture ceremony, to which he arrived late, moments before the young 35-year-old businessman took office.

At the end of the meeting, Petro trusted that the Noboa Administration will continue to develop the bilateral work agenda that was already advanced with the Lasso Government.

Speaking to Colombian journalists who accompanied him on this trip, Petro insisted on the possibility of opening a new road between the two countries through the Pacific coast, a turbulent area where dissident groups operate. Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and other criminal drug trafficking gangs.

“The path is already made, everything is finished. Colombian customs and the border post are in place, all that remains is for the Ecuadorian border post to be created and we hope that this Government decides to do so”, commented Petro.

The Colombian president is betting on its activation as a guarantee against contingencies that occur on the Pan-American Highway, the main road linking Ecuador It is Colombia by the Andes mountain range and which, in January of this year, was temporarily blocked by a landslide.

Petro also explained that he spoke with Noboa “the issue of violence and crime, (and the) emergence of gangs armed with long weapons in various parts of Ecuadorian territory“, as evidenced by the group of seven Colombians who carried out the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last August.

The Colombian president also expressed his concern about “the transfer of illicit crops (coca) to the department of Putumayo and therefore towards the Amazon jungle, on the Peruvian, Ecuadorian and perhaps Brazilian side“, It is “the concentration of mafia organizations in that same location”.

The leftist president reviewed “the change of ownership of drug trafficking, which stops being strictly Colombian and becomes Serbian, Albanian or Mexican, a very powerful multinational“, It is “All this means that States must organize”.

MORE INFORMATION: Noboa claims to have support from Pedro Sánchez for the European Union to exempt Ecuadorians from visas

Likewise, Petro highlighted that he spoke with Noboa about “strengthening the Amazon rainforest” and the importance that countries belonging to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) carries “a purposeful proposal” The world summit on climate change (COP28) which substantially reduces deforestation.

The head of state highlighted energy cooperation between the two countries, because in the same way that Ecuador exported electricity to Colombia in recent years, Colombia now exports it to Ecuador to support its energy crisis that has led it to implement scheduled blackouts due to a shortage of electrical energy due to the low generation of its hydroelectric plants.

In this sense, he expected that the climatic phenomenon of The boy which is forecast for the end of this year to bring rains to Ecuador that will restore its river basins and thus balance the balance in the face of what is expected to cause drought in Colombia.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.