United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hopes to meet Colombia’s President-elect Juan Manuel Santos shortly after his inauguration in August, sources at the State Department told Spanish press agency Efe on Friday.
A day before, Clinton talked to Santos on the phone and promised Colombia’s President-elect to “pledge to work very closely on our important bilateral issues in the coming weeks and months,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told press.
According to Efe, Clinton also told Santos she wanted to meet with him “shortly after he assumes power.” The two met earlier this month in the Colombian capital Bogota when Santos was still a candidate to the presidency.
The U.S. invested over $7 billion in Colombia since 2000 to help the Andean nation fight leftist rebels and drug trafficking and struck a deal with President Alvaro Uribe in 2009 that allows American troops access to Colombian military bases and airports.