ST. PETERSBURG, June 7. /TASS/. Colombia only supports political and diplomatic means of conflict resolution in Venezuela, Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo told TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"The Colombian position is very clear. The Colombian position has always been stated within the framework of the Lima Group and we only favor political and diplomatic means [of conflict resolution in Venezuela]," he said in response to a question on whether Bogota agrees with US President Donald Trump’s "all options on the table" stance on Venezuela.
Trujillo added that Colombia "will keep working through political and diplomatic means so that one day the Venezuelans can elect freely the government they think they should have."
The Colombian top diplomat noted that he discussed the situation in Venezuela during a Monday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We spoke about several issues of mutual concern and the important point that we agreed upon is the need and convenience to have a stronger and closer relationship," he said.
Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and speaker of the National Assembly, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital, Caracas, on January 23. On the same day, the United States recognized him as an interim president, and the countries of the Lima Group (excluding Mexico) and the Organization of American States followed suit. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted the move as an attempted coup and announced cutting diplomatic ties with the United States.
Most European Union member states recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.
The 2019 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is being held on June 6-8. The forum’s motto this year is "Creating a Sustainable Development Agenda". The organizer for SPIEF-2019 is the Roscongress Foundation. TASS is a media partner, the official photo hosting agency and the operator of SPIEF’s presentation zones with support from multinational firm EY, and the Foreign Investment Advisory Council in Russia.