 You're here in person and also those of you who are following us on Zoom for this very interesting meeting with Vice Minister Francisco Coy. And we're grateful to you Minister for finding the time to come and speak to us all today. This event is organized in conjunction with the Embassy of Columbia in Ireland. And I'm a former Irish diplomat Bob McDonough and I'm delighted to perform this function today. So the running order will be that first of all, the Colombian ambassador will say a few words and then Vice Minister Coy will speak for about 20 minutes or so. Then we'll have a Q&A session which is open both to those of you who are here who can simply raise a hand to ask a question, but also to people on Zoom who should use the Q&A function on Zoom. And those who are following it on Zoom can start sending in your questions throughout the session and we'll come to them later. And you should identify if you're asking a question who you are and if you have an affiliation. I should just recall that both the Minister's remarks and the Q&A are on record today. Guests are invited to tweet and the handle is at IIEA. And the whole event will run to four o'clock or possibly a couple of minutes beyond that. So first of all, I'd like to invite the ambassador to come up and say a few words. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Distinguished guests and members of the Institute of International European Affairs, who are with us, both in person and online. It's a great privilege and honor to welcome you all to this event where we have the pleasure of hosting the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Ambassador Francisco Coy. On a discussion on exploration of Colombia's foreign policy on peace and life, a subject that resonates deeply with both Colombia and Ireland. Particularly distant as we are, our chair experience in pursuit of peace reconciliation and environmental protection have forced a bond that transcends borders and continents. Colombia and Ireland have both endured the profound challenge of conflict and division without our societies. Yet we have chosen the path of peace and reconciliation. Ireland's Good Friday Agreement, which marked a crucial turning point on its history, and Colombia's remarkable efforts in negotiating their peace accord with the revolutionary armed force of Colombia, stand as testament to the power of dialogue and diplomacy in resolving even the most difficult conflicts. Our experiences serve as beacons of hope for other nations that strive to put an end to violence and conflict. Illustrating that peace is attainable even in the more challenging circumstances. Furthermore, our nations share a deep concern for the protection of life and the future of our children. Both Colombia and Ireland are blessed with stunning natural landscapes, and we understand the importance of preserving our planet for future generations. Whether it is the lush green fields of Ireland or the rich biodiversity of Colombia rainforests, our commitment to environmental protection transcends borders. It is a privilege to have by Minister Francisco Coy, a career diplomat, who I personally know to be a distinguished representative of our foreign policy providing valuable insights in Colombia's journey toward total peace and the importance of life in all its forms. After a very fruitful dialogue with our Irish colleagues during the political consultation that we engaged in earlier today, his presence here on this course the enduring bond between our two nations and our chair commitments to promoting peace reconciliation and the protection of life at the stage. I invite you all to actively participate in today's discussion during size and perspectives will undoubtedly enrich our understanding of these critical issues. Thank you very much. Vice Minister Francisco Coy is the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Colombia he joined the Colombian Foreign Service in 1988. He served as advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1920 to 22. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission to the European Union NATO Belgium and Luxembourg for five years from 2015 to 2020. His other diplomatic postings include Washington and Rome. He has been a professor of Colombian foreign policy comparative foreign policy and US foreign policy at several universities so it's an enormous pleasure and honor to invite you Minister to address us on the very interesting and I hope uplifting topic of a Colombian foreign policy on life and peace. Thank you very much. Would you like to do it for him perhaps. Thank you. Thank you very much for by me having this conversation as our ambassador Camilo. My first time in, in, in Ireland, we held this morning political consultations. And then that's why it displays, I was reading a little minutes, some minutes late so I'm sorry I apologize for that but I think this is a very interesting opportunity to share with you some views about what's going on in Colombia regarding foreign policy and peace. I understand because we've been talking with Ireland for many years about our peace process we have been receiving cooperation and support from Ireland in several instances. Among them security comes in until last year, but we have a long conversation on peace. This very interesting topic to talk with Ireland. But my, I know that an official spokesman for for the peace issue but I can talk about foreign policy and the way to understand the peace, the peace initiative for moving. Particularly within Colombia but we also have a projection in our foreign policy. So thank you today I, I, EA, and his director Alex White for hosting me today at this major research institute for European international policy in Ireland and Europe. Thank you for my colleague and friend Camilo Reese for co-organizing this event. Thank you all for your presence here and for those who are connected through soon for your interest in Colombia. It's an honor to be here today as I know where the former minister of foreign affairs of my country have participated in events and this institution regarding foreign policy and peace. I want to start giving you a brief overview of our foreign policy on life and peace that is basically the main topics on our national development plan under this government. And then we'll try to get some specifics of our peace initiatives. Of course, I'm more interested in here your views and your questions about what we're going to present. So I'll try to be brief. I don't know if I'm going to use the whole 20 minutes, probably less than that. As you know, the government of Brazil and Petro started a more than a year ago, seven hours of 2022 with a vision of Colombia to constitute our country as a world power on life. It's an addition from him and having as a core of this policy, what we call a total peace in our country. Our foreign policy aims to first position Colombia as a regional leader international agenda in topics such as drug policy, migration, climate crisis, and the construction of maintenance on pieces of both domestically and abroad. And second, second increasing the country capacity to influence global processes involving Colombian internal interest needs and enterprise depend relation with the state and all the state actors to contribute to a productive transformation with the generation of the globalized economy climate action already using existing national gaps in the country, probably if any of you have heard President Petro remarks international international forum. He has stated very clearly that humanity the planet is approaching a very critical juncture where we have to act, particularly on climate crisis to avoid catastrophic effects of the situation. Besides that we are confronting multiple crisis in the international system that we need to confront with cooperation. We were addressing an innovative agenda for foreign policy with a gender focus where we are in the process of establishing a feminist foreign policy. We to address migration issues with a human approach probably heard about the way we are very active on the migration approach particularly regarding the migration from Venezuela of this country. We also aim to work for a peaceful harmonious cooperative and respectful coexistence with neighboring countries, bringing measures for the policy for victims of the conflict in Colombia abroad. One key key point of our policy regarding peace is basically fulfilled as fully implement the 2016 agreement with FARC is the first key commitment of the government but also to reach out to other groups that are still active in Colombia and produces a key level of balance beyond what can estimate the acceptable for our country. And besides of that, the global global projection in key issues, you're developing some regional strategies so we're Africa where 20% of our population is African descent so we're working on Africa, Africa strategic means among other things to establish new representations in this continent, to have a broad and plural projection in the Pacific region where the big actors are there and very important. Where most the economic activity or the world of the trade or the world are being held and in our neighborhood, maybe one of the key issues that we can see is a establishment of relations with Venezuela after a complete breakout of more than three years into countries that are neighbors and very close in all aspects of so we are recovering that relation with our neighbor with major neighbor. We also want to deep our relation to the European Union, European countries and trade peace and the transition and sustainable development. We are building our strategic alliance that will bring us to sign a new agreement peace and cooperation agreement the European Union in the next year I hope. We are consolidating also they were relation with the United States and other traditional partners, yeah, you are entering also in a new relationship with China. We are maintaining some strategic autonomy and have a deep and fruitful relation with the major, major powers in the world, and to play a regional role we will say that in our national level plan as, as we, we try to project Colombia as a leader in some global issues, region as a leader in regional issues so we can bring together our region to the big debates of the contemporary current international scene in climate and drugs and migration and other issues that connect us together. And also we are a Caribbean country where we are building new relation with our neighborhood, we are part of the Caribbean, we want to deepen the relation with them and react the reactivating all the integration process has been participating in in the past. And participate in all the regional consultation processes on migration, you probably heard about the recently, we have a continental migration crisis that it can be seen in our border with Panama and the Darien area, when basically two flows of people from from South America and converging one coming from the south, from the northern Chile, keeping together people from Peru, Ecuador and other nationalities, and from the eastern part of the country from Venezuela, all of them converging in the Darien part, it is a huge migration crisis right now we're talking about a continental migration crisis, we need to work together, we're trying to propose some measures to address that. One big issue for President Petro is a climate action and just energy transition as you know that the world is approaching a critical point in regarding the climate crisis. And because of that we're proposing some initiatives to address that crisis among them, and the chain of that for a climate action and effective cooperation in the climate front, so the work can stop the world warming problem that is bringing us to a very critical point, we probably close the non-return point, we need to act that before we reach that critical end and will be bringing new proposals to the COP28 that will be held in a couple of months in Emirates. Total peace policy, as I said before, the first point is to fulfill our commitments as Colombian state with the 2016 FARC agreement, and then we are reaching out to other groups, still in arms in our country, the first of them is the ELN. As you mentioned, the Colombian state has been negotiated with the ELN for more than 20 years without reaching an agreement, the first time the Colombia has left the leaning government, with the ELN interpreted as an opportunity to reach a definite peace agreement, we've been engaging within five or six rounds of negotiations in different countries in Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico so far. President Pedro has fixed 2025 as a prospective date for a definitive agreement with them, which will be a good opportunity, but also the idea is to approach all the groups in arms, the second one is what we call the EMC, the Estal Mayor Central. Basically, this is from FARC, those who were within the process and then defected, and those who never entered the peace process. This weekend, we had a first round of negotiations with them, we agreed in principle to have as it's far with them, it's a very risky attempt to reach them, but we need to do it because President Pedro has said repeatedly, Colombia cannot fulfill the older development challenges without having peace internally in all aspects, which means that also the government is reaching out to other armed groups with no political agenda, basically organized plan, offering them an opportunity to submit to law and get a more lenient treatment in the penal system. That still has not started, but it's a purpose to reach out. The process with the Central High Command or EMC as in Spanish, it started March 13, 2023, and we are working now on a ceasefire. How peace projects to our international policy? Probably the most precise example is our relation with Venezuela, where we decided to establish relations after more than three years of complete breakout. With the purposes, one is reveal all the relations that have been neglected for so many years, we are trying to recreate institutions with Venezuela, we share within a long border, 2,219 kilometers, very active with millions of people in both sides of the border, so we need to reveal that relation. It's only common sense to do that, you cannot have that kind of relation with a neighbor so important. And the second one is to play a more constructive role regarding the internal process of Venezuela, as you know, the foreign policy, the previous government was aimed at a change of regime in Venezuela, which obviously get a failure. Now we're trying to get a different approach to Venezuela, helping as far as we can the internal process, approaching both parts, government and opposition in their political discussions. We've been playing a role, not so visible or trying to project to size, and probably in the next few weeks, we'll see both parts to return to a process that had started in Mexico at the last round of negotiations. Later last year, we'll be working to try to get it together and get an arrangement. We support and promote in general multilateralism and international and global dialogue as a fundamental mechanism for finding solutions with global problems. We are convinced that one criteria to formulate foreign policy is not necessarily as it was before our national interest, which is still important, while working now with the criteria we need to cooperate with our partners or our neighbors or our friends around the world to solve problems. One of the big challenges of the international scenario can be solved within only one country, think about drugs, think about climate change, environment, think about migration. None of these countries have one country only solution, so we prioritize cooperation as a way to confront or to address those problems. With ELN, probably it's one of your interests, we are working on that, we are agreement on as it's far and very difficult to help, but we are working very hard to have it to sustain. And we're working on that, as I told you before, our interest is to reach an agreement by 2025 as President Petro has stated as instructed to the government presentation in the peace talks with ELN. We have learned some lessons about the previous peace process and we cherish peace with Ireland regarding peace issues. So we highly appreciate the political cooperation and support of Ireland for peace in Colombia. As I said before, and particularly during the Ireland's tenure in Security Council will receive support and always constructive comments and observations from Ireland in New York and we've been working together in many ways to deepen our cooperation on peace issues. Although each of our countries is working their own path, exchanging experiences is important to learn from one another about innovative ways to overcome common challenges. I remember so many times that Iman Gilmore referred to a peace process in Colombia when we go get to those moments of crisis, they told us, well, our peace agreement, the Friday, the good Friday agreement was in 1998. I remember we have so many years of experience still, the process is always fragile. We need to keep working and try to keep it alive. When you cannot take it for granted, once you sign a peace agreement, you cannot see the end of the process, probably the beginning of the process after signing peace, you need to work on implementation and keep the course to avoid the, to avoid to get back to the conflict. Compromises must be made in those process. We need to understand that in Colombia. That was clearly discussed during the, after the peace agreement, when you say if you want peace, you probably need to sacrifice in some way justice because what you have to value is more important. You have justice and bringing all the people who have broken the law before or get within some kind of agreement to keep peace and within our point of view, peace is more important. And for the justice part, we have the transitional justice ways and we have implemented a special justice for peace tribunals to try those involved in the conflict. Remember we take in Ireland more than 23 years to implement the good for the agreement in Colombia, still in the early stages of implementation, but we have the all the willingness to keep going ahead in that implementation and that's why we are taking new initiatives toward peace. Ireland plays an important role in the, in Colombian process as expressed by US special administrative team Gilmore. He said once over the years Irish civil society organization churches trade unions development agencies and parliamentarians from North and South are regularly visited Colombia to express support for peace building and for the defense of human rights. All of which contributed to climate in which it was possible to advance in peace negotiations. We in Colombia try all the time. We are involved in political debates about the peace peace agreement peace implementation. Very often we feel that they were failing in that peace process because the internal debate is so intense that sometimes you seem you seem to see that there's another company coming coming over but actually when you take perspective when you have partners and friends like Ireland and help us to see the situation in Colombia. We see that the Colombian peace agreement with FARC is quite successful. The FARC the mobilized completely. They're fulfilling their obligations the government is trying to do the third part of the agreement. No, no that's as much as some people would like but it's still working the peace is being held. The FARC the mobilized completely out now they're a political party that participate in in the political process so sometimes in spite of our people believe supersedes the peace agreement. It is going to continue that the same way we are going to we are working with other actors with the LN and we're engaging now with the ECM or the other groups, because we need, we need to we are sure we need to get peace before we address successfully other challenges that are coming for our situation. That is basically what we wanted to share with you and open to questions I hope to to be able to answer them. I'm a diplomat for a foreign minister. And not a sperm piece but thank you very much.