BOGOTA, Jan 7 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro held a phone call on Wednesday afternoon where they discussed relations between the two countries, both men said, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Bogota.
This is the first phone call between the two presidents since Trump said on Sunday that a U.S. military operation focused on Colombia’s government “sounds good” to him.
“It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump added “arrangements are being made” for a meeting in Washington between himself and Petro, though he did not indicate when the meeting may take place.
“We have spoken by phone for the first time since he became president,” Petro told supporters gathered at a rally in Bogota meant to celebrate Colombia’s sovereignty, adding he had requested a restart of dialogue between the two countries.
A source in Petro’s office told Reuters the call was “cordial” and “respectful.”
Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House.
Trump has repeatedly accused the administration of Petro, without evidence, of enabling a steady flow of cocaine into the U.S., and on Sunday referred to Petro as “a sick man.”
In October, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Petro, accusing him of allowing the expansion of the illicit drug trade in the Andean nation.
Colombia and Petro have repeatedly rejected Trump’s accusations.
Petro has vocally denounced the Trump administration’s strikes across the Pacific and Caribbean, which Washington claims are focused on suspected drug trafficking vessels. The Trump administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats since September, in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Iñigo Alexander in Mexico City; Editing by Chris Reese)
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