It's official: Colombia will support Argentina to join the OECD

The Colombian Government will support Argentina to enter the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), reported, this Friday, April 19, the chancellor (e) of Colombia, Luis Gilberto Murillo.

The decision was announced by Murillo after a meeting in Bogotá with the Argentine foreign minister, Diana Mondino, in which they settled the diplomatic crisis that opened more than three months ago due to the president's repeated disqualifications Javier Milei towards his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro.

(See: Javier Milei will not travel on commercial flights again due to security issues).

Colombia officially became the 37th member of the Organization on April 28, 2020. by successfully concluding the accession process that began in 2013.

In that sense, Foreign Minister Murillo conveyed to Mondino “willingness to share your experience in the accession process“, according to a joint statement released at the end of the meeting.

The foreign ministers took stock of the bilateral relationship and addressed issues such as commercial exchange, tourism, the possibility of increases in air frequencies, the promotion of defense cooperation, regional integration and multilateral relations.

(See: Argentina situation drives lower growth estimates for the region).

Furthermore, it stood out the return to Buenos Aires of the Colombian ambassador to Argentina, Camilo Romero, as well as the approval granted to the designated ambassador of Argentina in Colombia, Mario Raúl Verón Guerra.

Romero had been called for consultations in Bogotá on January 26, after Milei assured in an interview with journalist Patricia Janiot that the Colombian president “He is a murderous communist who is sinking” to the country.

(See: 'Limit rough edges': Colombian ambassador will return to Argentina).

That was the first chapter of the scuffle between the two governments over Milei's statements, which a month later, on February 24, referred to Petro as “a lethal plague for Colombians themselves“, in response to a question from a journalist from the channel NTN24, which caused a “strong rejection“from Bogotá to what he described as “irresponsible statements” of the Argentine president.

The drop that filled the glass was the interview granted on March 26 by Milei to the channel cnn in Spanish in which he called Petro “terrorist killer“, which motivated the announcement of the expulsion of diplomats from the Argentine Embassy in Colombia, a drastic measure that was ultimately not carried out.

(See: Colombia reprimanded a US congressman who supported Milei's offenses against Petro).

EFE