Colomobia’s Duque strengthens economic ties with Israel on first official visit

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Today, the President of Colombia, Ivan Duque, highlighted in his first official visit to Israel the ‘historic and brotherly relationship’ between the two countries, based on economic and trade ties, increasingly closer thanks to the signing a year ago of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

We are at the highest point of the bilateral relationship’, said Duque today in Jerusalem in a joint speech to the media with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whom he invited to visit Colombia.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Colombia

Duque recalled that the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries had been signed, ratified, and implemented under his mandate. They hope to soon triple Colombia’s export figures to Israel, which amounted to 408 million dollars annually in 2010-19.

‘Through trade and investment, let us every day strengthen the ties between our entrepreneurs and our institutions’, said the Colombian president from Israel’s presidential residence in Jerusalem.

In August 2020, amid the pandemic and videoconference, Duque ratified with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the FTA that allows the export to Israel of 7,000 Colombian products without tariffs and 99% of industrial material free of taxes.

Duque plans to inaugurate tomorrow in Jerusalem an ‘innovation office’, which in practice will function as a liaison office focused on economic affairs with diplomatic representation.

‘We are clear that there will be many more Colombian companies interacting in Israel with that office. Today we already have 79, but we can perfectly triple them’, said Duque about this diplomatic office, which could imply a further step by Colombia to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Colombia maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv, where the international community transferred its legations from the Holy City when Israel annexed in 1980 the eastern half of Jerusalem, which corresponded to the Palestinians in the partition plan.

That paradigm changed in 2019, when former U.S. President Donald Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, and Kosovo.

‘Colombia and Israel are two sister nations. What we have built over the years is not just an economic or commercial relationship, as we share principles such as the defense of democracy, security as a democratic value and public good, and private initiative as an engine for development,’ Duque said.

President Herzog thanked Duque for opening this innovation office in Jerusalem and supporting Israel on the international stage by voting in its favor in international organizations.

‘Your visit to Israel will serve as a qualitative increase in relations between the two countries,’ Herzog told Duque, who arrived yesterday in Jerusalem for a private tour of the Old City.