After receiving Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in Bogota Thursday, both President Juan Manuel Santos and his counterpart have issued mutually complimentary assessments of the increasingly consolidated relations between the two neighbors.
Speaking after a meeting in which they discussed bilateral relations between the two nations, Santos stated that “Overall everything is flowing positively. I believe this relationship will grow stronger, increasingly strengthening cooperation on several fronts,” according to a government press release.
“The more cooperation, the more positive results for Ecuadorians and Colombians,” he said.
For his part, Correa said that “We are here to stay forever in the hearts of Colombia…the truth is finally and forever the south,” reported Publimetro.
The Ecuadorian president also offered support to Colombians suffering because of the rainy season’s devastation, offering the infrastructure of his own country in any way that could help alleviate the problems.
“The infrastructure that Ecuador has on the border [with Colombia] is at the command of the Colombian people,” he stated.
In Thursday’s visit, Correa delivered the keynote address and the International Book Fair in Bogota, where he also presented his own book about his country’s economy, which Santos in turn promised to read.
The Colombian head of state then thanked his guest of honor, noting that “you know that you and your entire delegation will be greeted as brothers, because that is what we are with Ecuadorians, we are brothers.”
The exchange of pleasantries and platitudes is a far cry from when Santos assumed office, with the nations still locked in a two and a half year period of frozen relations — following an unauthorized Colombian attack on the FARC in Ecuador in March 2008 — which only thawed in November of last year.