Lekhi was on a three-day visit to Colombia from September 4

Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi on Monday called on Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez and discussed bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interests. During the visit, the two sides also signed a MoU on Space cooperation.

Tweeting about this meeting, the MoS External Affairs wrote: “Had a productive meeting with Marta Lucia Ramirez, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Colombia. Discussed bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest. We signed a MoU on Cooperation in Space.”

Lekhi was on a three-day visit to Colombia from September 4 to 6, during which interacted with Indian community members and also leading Indian and Colombian companies.

In 2019, India and Colombia celebrated 60 years of their diplomatic relations. Colombia is an important partner of India in Latin America and India’s relations with Colombia have been expanding particularly, in the economic and commercial sphere.

Bilateral trade with Colombia for the year 2020-21 stood at USD 2.27 billion, which is a significant increase from USD 1.85 billion over 2019-20 despite disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As per the MEA, the visit of MoS Lekhi to Colombia provided an opportunity to review progress in India-Colombia bilateral relations and further expand and strengthen this important partnership.

The last Ministerial visit from India took place in October 2018, when then Minister of State for External Affairs, General (retd.) V. K. Singh paid an official visit to Colombia.