Biden names Colombia ‘major non-NATO ally,’ countering Putin’s influence in Latin America

President Biden introduced Thursday that he’ll identify Colombia as a serious non-NATO ally, a major recognition as america tries to undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin’s affect in Latin America after his invasion of Ukraine.

The particular standing has been given to solely two different Latin American nations — Argentina and Brazil — and alerts a really shut relationship between america and international locations not a part of the North Atlantic Treaty Group.

The designation offers Colombia with sure commerce advantages and boosts alternatives for safety cooperation between the 2 international locations— together with Colombia’s potential eligibility to buy depleted uranium ammunition, in line with the State Division.

It additionally comes because the Biden administration weighs lifting sanctions on Colombia’s oil-rich neighbor Venezuela, in an effort to make up for any hole left by the U.S. ban on Russian vitality imports — a transfer Colombia strongly opposes.

Forward of a 45-minute assembly with Colombian President Iván Duque on the White Home, Biden mentioned the popularity alerts the “distinctive and shut relationship” between the international locations and mentioned the South American nation is the “lynchpin” of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. “Colombia is a keystone to our shared efforts to construct a hemisphere as affluent, safe and democratic,” Biden mentioned.

Duque, whose time period ends in August, later thanked Biden and mentioned the designation acknowledges “the rules and values that we now have shared.”

Colombia has lengthy been an in depth ally for each Democratic and Republican administrations; it’s championed as a comparatively secure and affluent nation in a area with quite a few leftist, corrupt or pro-Russia leaders.

On the United Nations Basic Meeting vote calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine, Nicaragua and Cuba abstained. Venezuela didn’t vote as a result of it has fallen behind on member dues. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro mentioned his nation would stay impartial however denigrated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose wartime management has drawn worldwide acclaim.

On the White Home, Duque was rather more forceful in strongly condemning Putin, saying that the invasion of Ukraine “has been a really horrifying second for the world” and that “nothing justifies the massacre.”

“We additionally should say that within the occasions we face, we now have made a robust stand in opposition to the brutal, unjustified assault from Russia to Ukraine,” Duque informed reporters after his assembly.

Duque’s conservative authorities has additionally been particularly helpful to Washington as a counterbalance to Venezuela. Colombia has been a haven for American diplomats who’ve both been withdrawn or expelled from Caracas, and for Venezuelan politicians against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who consolidated energy after a 2018 election broadly condemned as fraudulent.

Duque has objected to the chance that the Biden administration would carry punitive sanctions on Venezuela, which is sitting on one of many world’s largest oil reserves.

“For those who’ve simply banned oil from what they name the Russian dictator, it’s troublesome to clarify why are you going to be shopping for oil from the Venezuelan dictator,” Colombia’s minister of vitality and mining, Diego Mesa Puyo, informed the Monetary Instances.

Throughout their assembly, the presidents mentioned subjects together with COVID-19 and migration.

Colombia bore the brunt of a mass exodus of refugees from Venezuela following its financial collapse after the 2018 presidential election and gained reward in lots of circles for accommodating the brand new arrivals, a transfer that additionally helped scale back their movement northward to america. In February, Duque was applauded internationally after granting greater than 1.8 million Venezuelans non permanent protected standing for a decade.

On the White Home, the presidents mentioned they might work towards a regional declaration on migration and safety on the Summit of the Americas, which is predicted to happen in June in Los Angeles.

Instances employees author Andrea Castillo contributed to this report.