Colombia and Ecuador announced Thursday that they will reopen the Binational Border Commission (Combifron) in a step towards repairing fractures relations between the two Andean nations.
Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva and his Ecuadorean counterpart Javier Ponce met in Bogota to ratify the reactivation of the commission, which oversees the border security and cooperation between the two countries.
Combifron aims to “coordinate, evaluate and supervise the process of military and political agreements over border security,” according to a press release.
The officials also announced the creation of a high level commission that will evaluate the issues along the border that affect each country.
The reactivation of Combifron is a move towards reestablishing diplomatic relations, which were broken by Ecuador on March 3, 2008. Ecuador broke ties following the incursion of the Colombian military onto Ecuadorean territory during the bombing of a FARC camp, in which guerrilla leader ‘Raul Reyes’ was killed.
Ponce also offered Ecuador’s services to mediate ongoing and escalating tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, website La F.M reported Thursday.