President Gustavo Petro has an agenda in Sweden and Switzerland between June 12 and 15.
Photo: Joel_Presidencia
In the midst of a turbulent international scene, which continues to be agitated by the impossibility of stopping two wars that could lead to war conflagrations that surpass other borders, President Gustavo Petro wants to promote Colombia as an example that building spaces for dialogue is possible and that the same differences can be the starting point to seek understanding. Of course, he is aware of the internal noises that he faces due to the deterioration of rural and urban security and the stagnation of his battered total peace.
This journey to position Colombia as a reference, and which gives it a break from the internal turmoil, begins this Wednesday – June 12 – with a first stop in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, where the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement that he has criticized so much and that seeks to give it constituent overtones is a first axis.
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And three quotes will be key here. One is scheduled for Friday at the Swedish Defense University, where Petro’s intervention is scheduled for the “Peace, Reconciliation and Human Rights” forum. What he says in this scenario is decisive, because it can set the tone for what he would do in July when he travels to New York for a session of the Security Council in which, as he has announced, he wants to denounce the Colombian State that he represents for the alleged breach of what was agreed in Havana with the extinct FARC.
Furthermore, according to official information, he wants to analyze “the international support he has received in the search for total peace,” a commitment that is not at its best internally when the communicating vessels with the dissidents of alias Iván Mordisco are frozen. The dialogue with the ELN faces ups and downs and controversies over the content of what is negotiated, it is not known what status the Segunda Marquetalia criminal group of “Iván Márquez” – a deserter of the 2016 agreements – will have, and the negotiations with narco gangs in three capitals. (Medellín, Buenaventura and Quibdó) are in a kind of limbo without major progress.
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But it is also true that the philosophy with which part of this strategy was designed has interest in other areas. In fact, this newspaper learned that local governments of some cities hard hit by gang phenomena have asked about urban experiences in the country and how they have managed to try to reduce crime.
Another of the meetings aimed at promoting the country as a scene of negotiations to put an end to armed confrontations is with Stefan Löfvén, former prime minister and president of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). One of the main axes of this event is cooperation as a determining point for negotiated solutions to conflicts.
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However, the agenda in Sweden has other issues that are not minor and that is why it was classified as an official visit, which also takes place within the framework of the commemoration of the 150 years of bilateral relationship. Upon his arrival, before all these meetings aimed at talking about peace, Petro will hold a meeting with members of the Swedish Parliament, among whom is its president, the conservative Andreas Norlén, a person who – according to the local press – has flirted with the extreme right. of his country.
Furthermore, between that Wednesday and Thursday, meetings with King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and with the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, are on the agenda, read in his country as a moderate conservative politician who, in any case, in the last elections This weekend’s European elections saw its electoral capital reduced.
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In these scenarios, according to information accessed by this newspaper, work will be done on binational cooperation agreements around mining and sustainable mobility, innovation, human security, prevention of violence against minors and other environmental issues that they play with COP-16. Furthermore, in another space that is important for another part of Petro’s delegation – that of the business sector – there will be dialogue with delegates from Swedish firms to “expose investment and commercial exchange opportunities in Colombia.”
The name of the Saab company is key here, which maintains its intention to sell combat aircraft to the country – which is being analyzed to renew the Kfir of Israeli origin – and which recently reached a very advanced point of negotiation. According to high government sources, they were finalists in a process that was stopped to take that step together with firms from the United States and France. In fact, the Swedes recently reported that they have a prototype of an aircraft assembled in Brazil and that it could serve as a base to extend their commercial ties in the rest of the region, including Bogotá.
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Now, according to the Casa de Nariño, in the midst of this busy agenda there will also be a meeting in Stockholm of the 26 ambassadors that the country has in Europe on Thursday, June 13, which Petro will attend, but which will be led by Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo. The advance of the extreme right on that continent, without a doubt, will be a fundamental axis of the meeting.
In any case, the international journey of Petro – who has already made more than 30 trips abroad since he assumed power and who delegated his functions to the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, while this tour concludes – will continue to end the week in Switzerland. And this quote is also very key.
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Indeed, between Friday and Saturday Petro will be in the Swiss town of Bürgenstock, where the Conference for Peace in Ukraine will take place. Delegates from all levels from at least 90 countries attend this meeting, but with the notable absences of Russia – the invading nation – and China, whose diplomats reported that they would not be present due to the way in which Vladimir’s possible departure was handled. Putin, Xi Jinping’s ally. Unofficial information indicated that neither Brazil nor Mexico, among others, will be present.
The axes of the global meeting are nuclear security, food security and free transit and humanitarian affairs, but everything is aimed at determining whether or not there is a peaceful solution to a war that has been going on for more than two years and that touches the European borders. But, in addition, it is almost a fact that the harsh situation in Gaza and the confrontation with Israel will be part of the agenda.
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Precisely, within this framework, a bilateral meeting is planned between President Petro and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, who recently confirmed to El Espectador his interest in this dialogue taking place. The Colombian president is also looking for a space with Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States and who will attend on behalf of Washington, since Joe Biden is attending to other agendas related to his re-election campaign.
In any case, beyond diplomacy, in this meeting in Swiss territory there are two issues that have alarm bells set off. On the one hand, the possibility of Ukraine going on a military offensive directly into Russian territory; and, on the other, Moscow’s response with the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. That would imply a larger conflagration that could impact other borders, without taking into account the implications that there would be in the war between Gaza and Israel and the same tension between China and Taiwan.
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President Petro and his entourage are convinced that Colombia and much of Latin America can be an example of dialogue to prevent any of these global risk situations from breaking out, and precisely one of their slogans is to show that there are no conflicts in the region. between countries. Now, the results obtained by the head of state, without a doubt, will also have a lot of internal key, not only because of his next step before the UN Security Council, but because of the tense political and economic situation that the country is experiencing. country and that for the Casa de Nariño they require a break to rearrange strategies.
