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Russia, Colombia foreign ministers to discuss trade cooperation

The bilateral negotiations will be held in Moscow on July 4

Maria Angela Holguin, Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Maria Angela Holguin, Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 3 (Itar-Tass) - Foreign Ministers of Russia and Colombia Sergei Lavrov and Maria Angela Holguin will discuss broader bilateral trade and economic cooperation in Moscow on July 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Wednesday.

Holguin will visit the Russian capital as the head of the delegation to participate in the 5th meeting of the Russian-Colombian intergovernmental commission.

“Colombia is Russia’s important partner in Latin America. Our countries are developing a vigorous political dialogue. We are deepening cooperation between the drug control agencies and the law enforcement agencies of the two countries, including such multipartite mechanisms as the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission and the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“We are developing trade and economic ties,” the Foreign Ministry said. “The bilateral trade for 2012 reached 462.7 million dollars (317 million dollars in 2011),” the ministry reported. Meanwhile, the Russian exports went up 2.6 times to reach 290.3 million dollars, the imports from Colombia increased to 172.3 million dollars.

“We support a continued negotiating process between Juan Santos’ government and the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to work out a peaceful solution to the domestic conflict,” the ministry reported. “We hope that Colombia and its people will be able to overcome a difficult stage in their history and will come to agreement that will allow them to resolve successfully the tasks for further socio-economic development on the basis of a broad domestic political dialogue,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

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