The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, will participate in a meeting between Ecuador and Colombia on Friday, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister announced Monday.
Colombia’s Foreign Minister, Jaime Bermudez, and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Fander Falconi, are due to meet on Colombian territory to continue the process of restoring diplomatic relations, reported Agencia EFE on Monday.
Amicable rapport between the two countries has been non-existent since March 2008 when the Colombian Army carried out a military operation against a FARC encampment on Ecuadorian territory without telling the authorities of the neighboring country.
At the meeting on Friday, it is expected that both ministers will set up three workshops for the process of “direct dialogue” – which is the goal they identified in September and intend to achieve in October.
According to Agencia EFE the three focuses for the workshops will be: security and organized crime, addressing of issues regarding the Colombian/Ecuardorian border and lastly, the treatment of “sensitive issues” – the precise details of which are as of yet unknown.
It is as a result of these “sensitive issues” that both countries have requested the mediation of a representative of the OAS at the meeting which will be the Secretary General Insulza, who is due to arrive into Quito from Honduras on Thursday.
A source informed Agencia EFE that the “logic of the dialogue is that it remains open” and that no subject is left untreated so that the current political crisis between Colombia and Ecuador can be swiftly overcome.
