2023-10-24 01:00:02
BOGOTÁ (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrived in China on Monday to strengthen economic ties and talk about transportation systems, including the construction of Bogotá’s first metro by Chinese companies.
Petro will fulfill an official agenda at the invitation of President Xi Jinping until October 26, as indicated by the Chinese Embassy in Colombia on Sunday from its X account, formerly Twitter.
The Colombian presidency said in a statement on Monday that Petro will hold a meeting with the Chinese president on Wednesday and will sign a plan for the growth of bilateral relations and cooperation instruments.
“The trade deficit in Colombia’s balance, in general, is due to a deficit with China, so overcoming that deficit would be one of the best economic policies that could be made in the country,” Petro told the press after landing in Beijing International Airport.
The Colombian president expressed interest in the Silk Road, an emblematic policy of Xi Jinping in which Chinese companies have built infrastructure projects around the world. In the Colombian case, Petro pointed out, he considers that there is an “opportunity” for the country in the development of a railway structure, which it lost decades ago.
“Colombia made a huge mistake by destroying its railways… To that extent, relaunching the national railway network makes sense today if we look at it as the commercial bridge between the Pacific (ocean) and the Atlantic,” Petro added.
The presidency detailed that Petro’s ambition is to make a “maritime connection” between Chinese ports and Colombian ports in Buenaventura, in the Pacific, linked by railways to the Caribbean.
As Petro anticipated in the days before his trip to China, it will be central to his state visit to discuss the Bogotá metro, which is being built by Chinese companies that won a tender in 2019 for more than 3.3 billion dollars.
Petro, who was mayor of Bogotá between 2012 and 2015, is seeking to make changes to the elevated subway contract that is being executed to achieve an underground section on the first line.
“I want to talk to the heads of the Chinese state about what is happening and obviously about other issues, but the subway issue is one of the concerns we have, given that the nation finances 70% of the subway,” he said in an official statement on Wednesday.
1698109465
#Petro #arrives #China #strengthen #ties #talk #Bogotá #metro