A meeting between the foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela Monday was “successful,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.
Talking to press in Caracas, Chavez announced that his and the Colombian government are “setting agendas” for a presidential summit between the Venezuelan head of State and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos.
Quoting a line from Santos, Chavez said that the two countries will not allow their improving relations to “derail.”
The Venezuelan president stressed that relations between the countries “will continue to improve at all levels,” contributing “mightily to the union of South America.”
Chavez added that “there will always be those who try to sow discord, those who seek – as they say in Colombia – to put a stick in the wheel, those who seek to derail.”
Relationships between the two South American countries were rocky under former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe‘s tenure when Venezuela on several occasions imposed a “quasi-trade embargo” on Colombia, but improved after Santos took office last year.
Venezuela is Colombia’s second largest trading partner after the United States.