President Gustavo Petro will return this week to the United States with the aim of placing Colombia in the group of the most important economies in the Pacific.

This time, the trip of the Colombian president, who was in the United States two weeks ago, aims participate in a meeting of Pacific regional leaders, hosted by the United States and attended by important world leaders.

(Also: President Petro’s social reforms are moving slowly in Congress, what’s happening?)

“Now we will meet with the United States, China and other countries of America and Asia in California to include Colombia in the economies of the Pacific, the most important economic region in the world,” said Sunday the head of state in his X (formerly Twitter) sharing news in which an international agency announced its presence at the event, which begins tomorrow, in North American territory.

(Read: “The government should consider a move towards total peace and devote itself fully to the ELN”)

President Gustavo Petro will be one of the participants in the 30th edition of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum, which will be led by his American counterpart, Joe Biden, whom the president met two weeks ago in Washington during a summit of leaders of the Western Hemisphere, also convened by the North American president.

If Colombia enters this group, it would be an important achievement, given that the country has been seeking membership since 1995. The country has participated on other occasions in this event, as a guest.

(You might be interested: Cepeda on Eln: ‘We will only talk about financing if it is linked to the end of the conflict’)

And it is no small matter that Colombia enters this group, knowing that, according to the Efe agency, This forum represents 60 percent of world GDP, almost half of world trade and brings together 40 percent of the planet’s inhabitants.

The summit, which will take place in San Francisco, hopes to bring together leaders from most of Apec’s 21 member economies, made up of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, South Korea, Chile, China and the United States. United States, Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, whom the Colombian president met a few weeks ago in Beijing, also confirmed his presence.

Indeed, as part of this event a meeting between Biden and Jinping is planned, two of the most important world leaders today. The two leaders will meet on Wednesday in San Francisco.

(Also: What did Carlos Fernando Galán and Federico Gutiérrez talk about in Bogotá? / In secret)

Until yesterday evening, the president’s agenda on American territory and the meetings he would hold with other leaders had not been confirmed, which is not excluded.

MATEO GARCIA

POLITICAL EDITING