The high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrellhe assured this Sunday in an interview with EFE in Cartagena de Indias that the relationship between the community bloc and Latin America is complex, but that both regions need each other.
“The relationship between Europe and Latin America is complex, but we need each other”, said Borrell, who led the forum “Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe: Recalibrating our strategic association”, organized by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the EU-LAC Foundation, which started on Friday and ended today.
In this meeting, which was held behind closed doors, participated, among others, the Colombian Vice President, France Marquez; the former Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, who was president of the UN General Assembly; former president of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis; and the Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain, Pilar cancels.
“It has been very important and very useful for a group of intellectuals, professors, journalists, former political leaders to meet behind closed doors, because that is how (ideas) are really exchanged freely and there are issues that have to be nuanced, elaborated,” he said. .
Europe, Latin America and allies
The high representative stressed that “Europe needs allies to exist in the world”, while Latin America has “opportunities to offer” and “opportunities to receive”.
“We have to look for complementarities avoiding the irritants of our relationship. There are big environmental problems, but also the intrinsic problems of Latin America such as the inequalitythe violence”, he expressed.
Borrell said that both regions “are two very heterogeneous groups”, and highlighted some factors that make them very different.
“Europe is much more economically and politically integrated than Latin America. In Latin America, trade between states is 20%, and Europeans, between them, 60%. They are two different realities, but I insist on the idea that we need each other,” she asserted.
In this need, the European diplomat considered that Collaboration must “be based on shared interest, knowing that we start from a cultural, linguistic and historical proximity like no other part of the world”.
“You have to take advantage of that because to establish a good relationship, you have to have ties and of course human ties, which we do. Now we have to strengthen our political relationship, ”he stressed.
the russian invasion
One of the topics discussed during the forum was the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Borrell stressed that those who participated in the meeting are aware that this conflict meant “a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations”.
“It is a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a state that is causing civilian casualties every day, a war that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin started and does not want to stop,” he explained.
For the war to end, Borrell believes that it is necessary “for Ukraine to be able to resist”.
That is why he hopes that the Colombian and regional authorities have understood why the Europeans are “so concerned about the war in Ukraine.”
“I have had the opportunity to explain that this is not a problem only for Europeans, that Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. We want peace, but we want a peace that is not the peace of the defeated, but rather a just peace that respects the sovereignty, the territorial integrity of an attacked country”, he stressed.
visit to colombia
Before participating in the forum in Cartagena, Borrell spent the whole week in Bogotá, where he met with the Colombian president, Gustavo Petroand several members of his cabinet, as well as with Venezuelan migrants and other representatives of civil society.
“I take away a better understanding of the country’s problems. We have in mind the 2016 peace agreement (signed by the Government and the FARC), but I know that peace is not yet achieved.” express.
For this reason, the diplomat valued the total peace initiative, one of the flags of the Petro government to negotiate an agreement or seek the submission of armed groups. He also stressed the importance of the 2016 agreement being implemented.
“(It is important) to negotiate with the new insurgent flows that have appeared. In this, the European Union has accompanied the peace process financially and politically, and it will continue to do so. Now I understand Colombia’s problems much better, ”he concluded.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com