Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the Russian government has committed to endorsing peace talks between the Colombian government and the country’s largest rebel group, the FARC.
President Santos announced that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will lend his support to the peace talks, currently taking place in Havana Cuba, in an effort to end Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict, according to Colombia’s El Pais newspaper.
A meeting of the two heads of state will take place at a forum of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Brazil on Thursday.
“I will meet with President Putin in two days [Thursday] in Brazil where he told me that he would give his support to the Colombian peace process. Look how important the significance is, that Russia is also backing the peace process in Colombia,” said President Santos from a meeting in Miami, Florida on Tuesday.
In an effort to emphasize the scope of support to ending Colombia’s armed conflict, Santos expressed the international community’s desire for peace in the country.
“We have received the support of the government of the United States, from European governments, from all Latin American countries,” said Colombia’s head of state.
Ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the country’s oldest rebel group, which began in November 2012, resumed on Tuesday with victims of the armed conflict being at the center of the negotiating table.
Both parties have come to agreements over agrarian land reform, political participation, and the problem of illicit drugs.
