Talking About Colombia

Colombia and Canada have signed agreements on human rights, and free trade which covers labour and environmental cooperation.

Canada has also provided Colombia with much development assistance.

Now, the two can add a military agreement to the list. The defense ministers of the two countries, Peter MacKay and Juan Carlos Pinzon, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which the Colombian armed forces will have access to training that will expose them to Canadian values, including the need to incorporate and promote the respect in human rights in basic military training and in guidelines for operations. The two countries will also carry out strategic defense policy discussions.

Canada’s MacKay said, “We look forward to continuing to build our ties with the Colombian Armed Forces.”