Negotiators from the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group will meet behind closed doors in Norway’s capital Oslo on Wednesday and will officially launch the public phase of the talks on October 18, said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ office on Tuesday.
According to the press release, the “contact and meetings of preparatory work for the public installation of the dialogues in Norway have continued since the end of the exploratory phase.” Once this phase of negotiations has been completed in Norway, talks will continue in Havana, Cuba.
The press conference which will officially launch the peace talks will take place on Thursday afternoon in Oslo, Norway which is seven hours ahead of Colombia.
Negotiations were originally scheduled to begin on October 8, however they have been continually delayed due to legal complications, including delays in suspending 340 arrest warrants and convictions of the guerrilla negotiators.
The talks were then again delayed on Monday due to “logistical difficulties” which were rumored to have been because of bad weather in the Colombian capital Bogota delaying flights of government negotiators.
Negotiations are being held to try and reach an agreement to end the 48-year-old conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC. The last attempt at peace ended in disaster 10 years ago when the guerrillas were granted a demilitarized zone the size of a small country which they used to strengthen their forces and set up prison camps for their hostages.