Visit of Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri Anand Sharma, to Colombia, 19-21 June, 2007

Visit of Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri Anand Sharma, to Colombia, 19-21 June, 2007

 
Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri Anand Sharma, visited Bogota, the capital of Colombia accompanied by a delegation of MEA officials.
The visit opened with a call on President of Colombia Mr. Alvaro Uribe Velez in the forenoon of 20 June.  The President received the Minister very warmly and spoke of the importance of India for Colombia.  The Minister conveyed the greetings of President and Prime Minister of India to President Uribe and conveyed Government of India’s desire to invite President Uribe to India in the first half of 2008.  President Uribe welcomed the invitation and expressed his interest in attracting Indian investment and increasing political, commercial and cultural cooperation between the two countries.   
Thereafter the delegations of both countries held formal discussions on a range of bilateral issues.  The Colombia delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Mr. Fernando Araujo Perdomo.  The discussions touched upon India’s interest in further investing in the energy sector in Colombia; participation in infrastructure projects in  Colombia such as railways; forthcoming visits of business delegations in both countries; cooperation in defence and security and multilateral fora.  MOS extended an invitation to Foreign Minister Araujo to visit India later this year, which the latter accepted. The Ministers reviewed the international situation and exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

Minister Sharma thereafter called on Minister of Foreign Trade, Industry and Tourism, H.E. Mr. Guillermo Plata Paez and discussed ways to enhance the bilateral trade which has reached a record US$ 410 million in 2006; possibilities for concluding Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement; Preferential Tariff Arrangement; etc.  Minister Sharma pointed out that several Indian companies in areas of engineering, software, textiles, apart from public sector enterprises such as OVL and IRCON could offer tremendous expertise which would be useful for Colombia.  The Minister informed Minister Plata about the Joint Business Forums between the two countries scheduled to be held in August 2007 in Bogota and Medellin and urged the Minister to accelerate the pace of official and business visits to India from Colombia.

Minister also called on the Minister of Mines and Energy Mr. Hernan Martinez, pointing to presence of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) in Colombia with an investment of US$ 425 million, and its interest in further collaboration, as well as interest of various Indian companies in the Colombian mining sector.  Minister Martinez expressed Colombia’s appreciation of Indian interest in the Colombian energy sector and also his desire to collaborate with India and with OVL in particular, pointing to the prospects of collaboration between the Colombian state company Ecopetrol and OVL.

Minister Sharma also called on Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos and discussed areas of mutual interest as well as possibility of training and equipment transfer.  Minister Santos expressed his interest in visiting India in September-October 2007 on the standing invitation of Rakhshamantri to develop closer relations with India.

Miniter Sharma and Colombian President  Alvaro Uribe


Minister Sharma and Colombia's Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo Perdomo


Minister Sharma and Colombian Minister of Commerce Mr. Luis Guillermo Plata


Minister Sharma and the Colombian cMinister of Mines and Energy Hernán Martínez


Colombian Minister of defense  Juan Santos and Minister Sharma