Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe agreed Saturday to launch talks on a treaty to increase protection of their bilateral investments, a Japanese official said.
The agreement was reached during their brief meeting in the Peruvian capital on the fringes of a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which opened earlier in the day.
Colombia is not a member of the 21-member Pacific Rim group.
Uribe, who is in Lima to attend an APEC-related conference, asked Aso for Tokyo’s support for Colombia’s accession to APEC, the official said.
Aso pointed out that many countries are interested in joining APEC, but that Japan will take Colombia’s request seriously, according to the official.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. (Kyodo)