Strengthening relations with Colombia

  • 22 Jan. 2021 -
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  • Last updated: 25 Jan. 2021 16:30

On 22 January 2021, Colombian Vice Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs Adriana Mejía, Vice Defence Minister for Strategy and Planning Jairo García, and NATO representatives decided to extend their bilateral cooperation.

From left to right: Ambassador Felipe García Echeverri, Vice Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs of Colombia Adriana Mejía, NATO ASG PASP Bettina Cadenbach and Vice Defence Minister for Strategy and Planning Jairo García

Colombia, a partner since 2017, and NATO have been developing common approaches to security challenges in areas such as intelligence-sharing, cyber defence, maritime security, the fight against corruption, and terrorism and its links to transnational organised crime; they have also cooperated to reinforce the capabilities of the Colombian armed forces through education and training. New areas of cooperation could potentially include resilience, interoperability and defence capability planning. 

Colombia, NATO’s only partner in Latin America, contributes to international security in many ways. It took part, for instance in NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield in 2015 and contributes to UN-led operations in other parts of the world as far-flung as the Western Sahara and Lebanon. NATO and Colombia have been engaged in dialogue and cooperation since 2013; the relationship became an official partnership in May 2017 when Colombia signed an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme with the Alliance.