President Iván Duque spoke about the letter Joe Biden sent him

Colombian President Iván Duque spoke on Saturday, February 27 on the letter he received from his American counterpart, Joe Biden, a day after the content of the same was known.

During a press conference, the Colombian president quickly spoke about the applause sent by the North American head of state for the decision of the national government to offer temporary protection status for 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants who have entered Colombia given the difficult conditions currently prevailing in your home country. In this regard, Biden stressed that “the right thing is not always the most practical politically, but it is the mark of real leadership.”

For this reason, Duque stated that “we have received a communication from the President of the United States, Joe Biden, where he also tells us that it is a job that must be applauded and we understand it as applause for a whole country, because it didn’t happen overnight. We have been developing a serious and ambitious immigration policy for several years ”.

In the same speech, the President of the Republic took the opportunity to name other world leaders who sent messages of support to the country for the same decision., like Pope Francis, United Nations Secretary António Guterres; and the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, among others.

Letter from Biden it arrives after two months of possession, and after speculation about his relationship with President Iván Duque. In this letter, he expresses his affection for the South American country and his eagerness to start working with it.

“I assumed the presidency with clear eyes on the immense global and regional challenges that await us, but also eager to revitalize important and lasting relationships with partners like Colombia ”said the President of the United States in the aforementioned letter.

Likewise, he referred to the implementation of the peace process that the country has been leading since 2016, when he signed the agreement with the extinct guerrillas of the FARC, indicating that it is “committed to a bipartisan agenda that fosters our shared prosperity, which contributes to lasting peace for all Colombians and advancing our shared vision of a secure, middle-class and democratic hemisphere. “

It should be remembered that whenever the Colombian president refers to his relationship with the new North American leader, he chooses to highlight precisely the type of program that Colombia has with this country. “With the United States there has been a bipartisan relationship and this is how we can see it in the multiple presidential successions of the last 20 years, ”said the head of state in one of his most recent references about his relationship with Biden.

Likewise, it should be noted that the letter is in fact a response to the one written by Duque to congratulate his counterpart on reaching the highest political position in the United States. So, in addition to thanking him for his words, Biden reminds his interlocutor that “the world has changed considerably since our conversation in Bogotá in 2018, but my deep and permanent respect for the courage, sacrifice and perseverance of the Colombian people remains intact“.

Finally, he acknowledged that “Colombia is a country very close and dear to my heart, and I look forward to our work together”. It should not be forgotten that, as the Duke himself recalled two weeks ago, Biden was one of the architects of Plan Colombia in the Congress of the United States, as well as one of the architects of the Binational Business Council, two initiatives with a strong political, economic, social and security impact for the two countries.

In this way, doubts about the relationship between the two rulers, which had been at issue since the Colombian did not witness the possession of the American, began to slowly dissipate. This, according to experts such as the professor and the political analyst, follows a tradition that seeks to avoid sending or receiving bad political messages.

On the same subject, several statements were made, such as that of Namita Biggings, spokesperson for the US State Department, who stressed that “Colombia continues to be a very important partner, we continue to collaborate with the government of Iván DuqueWe have a team at the State Department that works on bilateral relations and we also have the ambassador in Colombia who takes care of that ”. The same official also recalled that the country is the third largest trading partner of the United States of Latin America.

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