Colombia seeks diplomatic and commercial relations with all countries, regardless of their ideologies or political or economic systems. For this reason, the Colombian economy is quite open, relying on international trade and following guidelines given by international law.
Since 2008, Colombia's Ministry of Trade and Commerce has either reached or strengthened Bilateral Trade Agreements with South Korea, Japan and China[1] building stronger commerce interchange and development in the Pacific Rim.
Regional relations have also vastly improved under the Santos Administration (2010–2018). Issues however remain regarding spillover of the FARC leftist-terrorist group, being chased out of hiding in rural areas of Colombia and finding safe havens in non-monitored areas of bordering states. The FARC numbers have significantly diminished in the last decade, to an estimated 5,000–7,000. And while joint military collaboration has steadily increased with the bordering countries of Brazil, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela, there have been tensions between Colombia and Ecuador regarding the issue. In 2002, the Ecuadorian government closed its main border crossing with Colombia, restricting its hours of operation. Ecuador continues to voice its concerns over an influx of émigrés stemming from guerilla activity at its borders. Evidence has since emerged however, suggesting that a significant number of the FARC's foot soldiers in and around the Colombia–Ecuador border consist of Ecuadorian émigrés who joined the leftist terrorist group out of need.[2] Returning Ecuadorian émigrés have faced re-entry restrictions.
In 2012, relations with Nicaragua and Venezuela were tested over territorial island disputes. Bilateral committees are negotiating the dispute with Venezuela over waters in the Gulf of Venezuela.
In the 1980s, Colombia broadened its bilateral and multilateral relations, joining the Contadora Group, the Group of Eight (now the Rio Group), and the Non-Aligned Movement, which it chaired from 1994 until September 1998. In addition, it has signed free trade agreements with Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Colombia has traditionally played an active role in the United Nations and the Organization of American States and in their subsidiary agencies. Former President César Gaviria became Secretary General of the OAS in September 1994 and was reelected in 1999. Colombia was a participant in the December 1994 and April 1998 Summits of the Americas and followed up on initiatives developed at the summit by hosting two post-summit, ministerial-level meetings on trade and science and technology.
Colombia regularly participates in international fora, including CICAD, the Organization of American States' body on money laundering, chemical controls, and drug abuse prevention. Although the Colombian Government ratified the 1988 UN Convention on Narcotics in 1994—the last of the Andean governments to do so—it took important reservations, notably to the anti-money-laundering measures, asset forfeiture and confiscation provisions, maritime interdiction, and extradition clauses. Colombia subsequently withdrew some of its reservations, most notably a reservation on extradition.
Regional treaties include the Andean Pact, now known as the Andean Community, which also includes Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, the bodies and institutions making up the Andean Integration System (AIS). Colombia has signed free-trade agreements with Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Gaining all 186 votes, Colombia served on the U.N. Security Council from 2011 to 2012 representing Latin American and the Caribbean.
Colombia is also a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the United States-military (as covered under Article 98).
Domestic politics and foreign policy
International Relations scholars long emphasized international constraints, and particularly Colombia's relationship with the United States, as central to its foreign policy.[5] In terms of foreign policy process, presidents have broad constitutional authorities, in consultation with their foreign ministers. However, since the 2000s, the influence of other domestic actors in Colombian foreign policy-making has increased. Long, Bitar, and Jiménez-Peña examine the role of the Colombian Constitutional Court, congressional politics, social movements, and electoral challengers. They find that Colombian institutions permit increasing challenges to presidential authority, and that in important cases Colombian presidents have been forced to drop their preferred foreign policies.[6]
Diplomatic relations
List of countries which Colombia maintains diplomatic relations with:
Present-day Colombia and Ecuador trace back established official diplomatic relations to December, 1831 with the signing of the Treaty of Pasto, in which both countries recognized each other as sovereign states. The Ecuadorean diplomatic mission in New Granada (Colombia) did not open until 1837. It wasn't until 1939 that Ecuador raised the diplomatic mission's status to an official embassy. Colombia did the same the following year, in 1940.[33]
The relationship between the two Latin American countries has evolved amid conflicts over the San Andrés y Providencia Islands located in the Caribbean close to the Nicaraguan shoreline and the maritime boundaries covering 150,000 km2 (57,915 sq mi) that included the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and the banks of Roncador, Serrana, Serranilla and Quitasueño as well as the arbitrarily designed 82nd meridian west which Colombia claims as a border but which the International Court has sided with Nicaragua in disavowing.[37]
The country traditionally has had good relations with the United States. Relations were strained during the presidency of Ernesto Samper (1994–98) due to accusations of receiving illegal campaign funding from the Cali Cartel. Relations between the two countries greatly improved during the Pastrana administration (1998–2002). In January 2000, the Clinton administration pledged more than US$1 billion of mainly military assistance to Colombia to assist the antidrug component of President Pastrana's strategy known as Plan Colombia.
Relations with the United States became a foreign policy priority for the Uribe administration, and Colombia became an important ally in the "War on Terrorism". In March 2002, in response to a request from U.S. President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress lifted restrictions on U.S. assistance to Colombia to allow it to be used for counterinsurgency in addition to antidrug operations. U.S. support for Colombia's antidrug-trafficking efforts included slightly more than US$2.5 billion between 2000 and 2004, as compared with only about US$300 million in 1998. Some critics of current US policies in Colombia, such as Law Professor John Barry, claim that US influences have catalyzed internal conflicts.
Colombia rejects threats and blackmail of the United States of America after the threat of Donald Trump to decertify the country as a partner in counter-narcotics efforts.[38]
For more than 30 years Colombia has demonstrated its commitment – paying a very high cost in human lives – with overcoming the drug problem. This commitment stems from the profound conviction that the consumption, production and trafficking of drugs constitute a serious threat to the well-being and security of citizens. Colombia is undoubtedly the country that has fought the most drugs and with more successes on this front. No one has to threaten us to meet this challenge.
The problem of drugs is global. Overcoming it can only be achieved through cooperation and under the principle of joint responsibility. Consumer countries’ authorities have a fundamental responsibility to their fellow citizens and the world to reduce consumption and to attack trafficking and distribution organizations in their own countries.
Latin America rejects Trump's military threat against Venezuela.[39]Brazil, Colombia and other countries in the region prefer to play a constructive role that would prevent a civil war in Venezuela.[40] Colombia's Foreign Ministry said that all efforts to resolve Venezuela's crisis should be peaceful.[41] Colombia proposed the idea of the Sustainable Development Goals and a final document was adopted by the United Nations.[42]
The relationship has developed since the early 16th century, when Spanish empire colonizers created the Province of Santa Marta (now Colombia)[unreliable source?][45] and the Province of New Andalucia (now Venezuela).[46] The countries share a history for achieving their independence under Simón Bolívar and becoming one nation—the Gran Colombia—which dissolved in the 19th century.[47] Following then, the overall relationship between the two countries has vacillated between cooperation and bilateral struggle.
In February 2019, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro cut diplomatic relations with Colombia after Colombian President Ivan Duque helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their country. Colombia recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president. In January 2020, Colombia rejected Maduro’s proposal that the two countries restore diplomatic relations.[48] Following the election of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the two countries restored diplomatic relations in August 2022.[49]
Colombia has an embassy in Caracas and maintains several consulates throughout the country.
Venezuela has an embassy in Bogotá and maintains several consulates throughout the country.
The relationship between the two countries has been gradually increasing with more frequent diplomatic visits to promote political, commercial cultural and academic exchanges. Colombia is currently the commercial point of entry into Latin America for Indian companies.[52]
In an article in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Marcos Peckel, a Colombian scholar noted that Colombian-Israeli relations can be looked through the lenses of military cooperation, trade links, education and culture, and recognition of Palestine.[56] Militarily, Colombia was one of the first countries to give Israel weapons and engage in arms deals, which has since been an ongoing bilateral agreement. Since, Israel and Colombia have shared intelligence, and as Peckel explains, several pieces of Israeli technology. Trade-wise, too, both countries have a strong relationship. The Free Trade Agreement, a pending agreement between Colombia and Israel, has the potential to further strengthen these relationships by boosting Colombian imports in Israel and increasing the presence of Israeli technology in Colombia. The spheres of education and culture between Colombia and Israel are deeply interwoven through Israeli scholarships to Colombians and a presence of media in each country.
"Colombia supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel within mutually agreed-upon borders. It considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal but strongly condemns Palestinian terrorism, and it advocates for a lasting peace based on the two-state solution". On resolutions in the UN General Assembly that compared Zionism to racism and wanted to establish a "right to return" for Palestinians, Colombia abstained. In 2018, Colombia officially recognized the State of Palestine. Despite creating a bump in the relations between the countries, the two have re-established strong relations.
The relationship was officially established in 1908, only interrupted between 1942 and 1954 with the surge of World War II. Relations are mostly based on commercial trade that has favored Japan interests, cultural exchanges and technological and philanthropic aid to Colombia.[57]
Ambassador of Colombia in Malaysia also accredited to Vietnam, while Malaysian Embassy in Lima, Peru, accredited to Colombia. Both are members of United Nations, Movement of Non-Aligned Cooperation Forum Asia-Latin America (FEALAC) and Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).
Both Pakistan and Colombia do not enjoy cordial dealings with some of their neighbours. Another common aspect that makes the task of both Colombian and Pakistan Armed forces even tougher is the difficult terrain they have been encountering. Poverty, income inequality, destruction and degradation of other vital organs of the state have consequently been the natural by-products of insubordination and rebellions in both Colombia and Pakistan. Both the countries have similar Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) too. While the Colombian Purchasing Power Parity GDP stands at $460.406 billion, Pakistan s GDP stands at $464.897 billion (latest IMF statistics). Like Colombia, Pakistan too also witnesses a large presence of the US military personnel and civilian contractors on its territory. Colombia established diplomatic relations with Pakistan in 1980, but bilateral trade between the two countries was negligible which needed to be improved for the benefit of both nations.
Colombia is accredited to Pakistan from its embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
Pakistan is accredited to Colombia from its embassy in Brasília, Brazil.
Direct flights from Istanbul to Bogotá commenced in May 2016.
Trade volume between the two countries was US$1.7 billion USD in 2019 (Colombian exports/imports: 1.46/0.25 billion USD.[61]
Europe
Under the Uribe administration, Colombia's relations with the European Union (EU) have been cordial. Representatives of the EU have been critical of Colombia's antiguerrilla and antidrug strategies in several respects. The EU is particularly concerned about the potential for increased human rights abuses within Colombia at the hands of both government forces and illegal armed groups, and it has continued to distance itself from Plan Colombia. The EU is in favor of a negotiated solution to the nation's internal conflict. EU aid to Colombia has mainly consisted of social, economic and development investments.
In 2004, the EU as an entity did not offer unrestricted support for the Uribe government's peace initiative with paramilitaries, citing concerns over the possible lack of a credible and comprehensive peace strategy and its application, but it did approve US$2 million in aid for the process. Individual EU members such Sweden, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands also provided limited support on their own.[62]
Andorra does not have an accreditation to Colombia.
Colombia's embassy in Madrid, Spain is accredited to the Principality of Andorra.
In February 2013, Colombia's Foreign Minister at the time made an official visit to Andorra in order to strengthen relations between the two countries.[63]
Colombia is accredited to the Czech Republic from its embassy in Vienna, Austria.([67] Austria).[68]
Czech Republic has an embassy in Bogotá.
The first connections between Czechia and Colombia occurred in the times of colonial era, during missionary activities of Jesuits in that area.[69] In 1860/1870s the Czech botanist Benedikt Roezl discovered the cycad plant Zamia roezlii on the Pacific coast in Colombia. The plant is named after him. In 1922 began the consulary activities between Czechoslovakia and Colombia. Since 1926 the Colombian consul had his seat in Prague. In 1935 both countries agreed to interchange the ambassadors.[69]
Officially the relations between Colombian and France began on May 30, 1892 with the signature of an agreement intended to establish French nationals in Colombia, increase commerce and navigation between the two nations.[72]
Colombia is accredited to Monaco from its embassy in Paris, France.
Monaco has an honorary consulate in Bogotá.
Colombia and Monaco first stablished diplomatic relations in December 2000. In 2012, Colombia's ambassador to France at the time, presented to Monaco its credentials becoming the first non-resident ambassador to the country.[81]
On 16 and 17 February 2022 president Iván Duque visited the Netherlands. There were talks about trade and judicial cooperation. Also a bilateral treaty for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance was signed by Dutch PM Mark Rutte and president Duque.[82]
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2010)
Narcotics and terrorism
By the 1990s, Colombia had become the world's leading supplier of refined cocaine and a growing source for heroin. More than 90% of the cocaine that entered in the 1990s the United States was produced, processed, or transshipped in Colombia. The cultivation of coca dropped between 1995 and 1999 from 3,020 to 1,100 km2 (425 sq mi), primarily in areas where government control was more active.
Despite the death of Medellín cartel drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1993 and the arrests of major Cali cartel leaders in 1995 and 1996, Colombian drug cartels remain among the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the world, controlling cocaine processing, international wholesale distribution chains, and markets. In 1999 Colombian police arrested over 30 narcotraffickers, most of them extraditable, in "Operation Millennium" involving extensive international cooperation. More arrests were made in a following "Operation Millennium II."
Colombia is engaged in a broad range of narcotics control activities. Through aerial spraying of herbicide and manual eradication, Colombia has attempted to keep coca, opium poppy, and cannabis cultivation from expanding. The government has committed itself to the eradication of all illicit crops, interdiction of drug shipments, and financial controls to prevent money laundering. Alternative development programs were introduced in 1999.
Corruption and intimidation by traffickers complicate the drug-control efforts of the institutions of government. Colombia passed revised criminal procedures code in 1993 that permits traffickers to surrender and negotiate lenient sentences in return for cooperating with prosecutors. In December 1996 and February 1997, however, the Colombian Congress passed legislation to toughen sentencing, asset forfeiture, and money-laundering penalties.
In November 1997, the Colombian Congress amended the constitution to permit the extradition of Colombian nationals, albeit not retroactively. In late 1999, President Pastrana authorized the first extradition in almost 10 years of a Colombian trafficker to stand trial for U.S. crimes. Three such extraditions to the United States have taken place, the most recent in August 2000, with cases against others pending in Colombian courts. Under the Pastrana administration, Plan Colombia was developed and implemented with U.S. backing.[92]
During the presidency of Álvaro Uribe, the government applied more military pressure on the FARC and other outlawed groups. After the offensive, many security indicators improved. Colombia achieved a great decrease in cocaine production, leading White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske to announce that Colombia is no longer the world's biggest producer of cocaine.[93][94]
In addition to the challenge posed to the United States by Colombian drug trafficking, illegal Colombian immigrants in the United States are an issue in Colombia-U.S. relations. According to figures from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Colombia is the fourth-leading source country of illegal immigration to the United States. According to its estimates, the number of illegal Colombian residents in the United States almost tripled from 51,000 in 1990 to 141,000 in 2000.[95] According to the US Census Bureau, the number of authorized Colombian immigrants in the United States in 2006 was 801,363.[96]
Colombia rejected threats and blackmail of the United States of America after the threat of Donald Trump to decertify the country as a partner in counter-narcotics efforts.[38]
For more than 30 years Colombia has demonstrated its commitment – paying a very high cost in human lives – with overcoming the drug problem. This commitment stems from the profound conviction that the consumption, production and trafficking of drugs constitute a serious threat to the well-being and security of citizens. Colombia is undoubtedly the country that has fought the most drugs and with more successes on this front. No one has to threaten us to meet this challenge.
The problem of drugs is global. Overcoming it can only be achieved through cooperation and under the principle of joint responsibility. Consumer countries’ authorities have a fundamental responsibility to their fellow citizens and the world to reduce consumption and to attack trafficking and distribution organizations in their own countries.
^U.S. Census Bureau, Selected Population Profile in the United States: Colombians U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. "S0201. Selected Population Profile in the United States; Population Group: Colombian; Data Set: 2006 American Community Survey; Survey: 2006 American Community Survey. (Via: Main>Data Sets>American Community Surveys>Selected Population Profiles (Geographic Type=Nation, Ethnic Group=Colombian)".
