Colombia and Venezuela Install Neighbor Integration Commission

The Colombian Foreign Minister, Alvaro Leyva, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Yván Gil, installed on Friday in Bogota the Commission for Good Neighborliness and Integration, as a further step in the reestablishment of relations between the two countries.

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The act took place at the San Carlos Palace, headquarters of the Colombian Foreign Ministry. The commission will be in charge of addressing "issues related to social and cultural, economic, and security development through Binational Technical Committees, in which cooperation and integration between the two countries will be promoted, giving priority to border areas," the ministry said. 

The occasion marks the first visit of a Venezuelan foreign minister to Colombia in more than five years. This time Gil said that the commission installed "will work on issues such as "infrastructure, communications, migration, social, environmental, and energy matters, among others."

The commission will include the participation of local authorities and social organizations in the beneficiary communities. Binational Territorial Boards will also be established between representatives of the border departments and states to address the needs of the border area.

We are in the city of Bogota together with Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva to participate in the installation of the Colombia-Venezuela Good Neighbor and Integration Commission with the objective of promoting this new stage of relations between the two countries.

For his part, the Colombian Foreign Minister said that this step means the "return to good neighborliness and integration" for both Latin American nations that broke diplomatic relations in February 2019.  

In this regard, Leyva said that this rupture "should never have happened." From now on, "we are going to forget the past, and we are going to make our republics an example, not only for our neighbors but for the entire planet," said the minister when referring to the new move as "a historic milestone."

A joint declaration on cooperation in the search for missing persons in border territory was also signed this Friday. "Venezuela will provide all the necessary collaboration and support for the work and investigations," said the Venezuelan foreign minister. 

In this respect, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said, "This is an agreement that will allow us to establish the most appropriate and expeditious mechanisms so that we can jointly carry out the search, recovery, and identification of human remains in Venezuelan territory."

The two countries have seen a rapprochement in bilateral relations since the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the Colombian presidency in August last year.