During their speech at the summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and the Chilean Gabriel Boric asked for Colombia’s entry into this alliance, which was proposed for the first time 28 years ago.

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“Since 1995, Colombia has asked to be a full member of this forum, that is, 28 years ago. It has never received a response,” Petro told the media after his speech at the summit held in San Francisco, which he attended in his capacity. of guest country.

“We would like to participate in this effort to unite the Latin American Pacific with the rest of the Pacific, Asian, North American, and to be able to think about what is the new ‘mare nostrum’ of human civilization, the Pacific Ocean, to be able to participate with of a joint solution to the main problems of humanity,” said Petro.

According to the Colombian Presidency, this demand was joined by Boric, whose country is one of the three Latin Americans that is a full member of this forum along with Mexico and Peru, and who assured in his speech that “Colombia has a tremendously important peaceful vocation “.

Colombia considers that APEC is “a very powerful forum”, since the US, Russia, China and other countries in Asia and America are sitting there, “and that practically means most of the CO2 emissions produced by the climate crisis in the world, the countries responsible for the war that could also be the countries responsible for peace.

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“That is to say that in that small meeting of a few countries the fundamental decisions of humanity practically intersect,” summarized Petro, who considers that his invitation to the forum means that Colombia “has increasingly greater preponderance on world stages.”

During his speech at the round table, Petro also took the opportunity to launch the environmental proposal that he makes in all forums: the possibility of exchanging external debt for climate action.

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“(American President Joe) Biden has welcomed the proposal,” said Petro, and if powers such as China or Russia also join in, “we could have the powerful lever to decarbonize our energies,” he added. EFE