Interview with H.E. Dr. Victor Hugo Echeverri Jaramillo, Ambassador of Colombia to India.

1.Colombia and India commemorate 65 years of diplomatic relations this year, how do you assess the relationship between the two great nations?

Our two countries established diplomatic relations in 1959, so it has been 65 years since. You can imagine that if you asked any ordinary Colombian citizen in Colombia or any Indian in India about our countries, the common answer would have been a plain “I do not know”. However, the bilateral ties at that time were backgrounded by the birth of the NAM in 1961, under the context of the cold war confrontation. Colombia became a full member in 1983, during the VII Summit of the NAM that took place in Delhi. Since then, our two countries have diversified their political, economic, and cultural ties.  Today, the reshape of a world witnessing new consolidated regional powers and updated political environments like the so-called global South, bring Colombia and India through new paths of common interests.

While we work closely on the multilateral global agenda of the UN and the multilateral institutions, on the bilateral grounds, the dynamics of our agenda is lead by the bilateral mechanism of political consultations that was set up in 1995 and a set of bilateral agreements covering technical cooperation, cultural exchange, and economic cooperation.

Today, the most valuable result is the mutual awareness recognition of our nations in a growing people-to-people and B2B relationship. Regarding public awareness India is admired in Colombia for its ancient culture and economic success while there is a growing interest in India for the Colombian culture, its literature and its potential as a key partner for the Indian companies in the LAC Pacific side of the globe.

Global challenges that concern us all, like global warming, growing pollution, the necessity to keep working on alternative sources of energies, or the fulfillment of the SDG and the struggle for a fairer international system are universal landmarks that call on our bilateral interest.

Now, when you think in terms of the classic bilateral approach, we have to recognize that the geographic factor is a real challenge. Frequently you hear people in the fora expressing that in the 21st century, distance is not an obstacle anymore. Maybe it is not a barrier when you are speaking about trade of cross-border services provided online, but certainly distance remains a serious challenge for the trade of goods and the rest of supplying modes services under the WTO, like Consumption abroad, Commercial presence of Movement of natural person. It is a fact that long distances increase the cost of the goods.

Nevertheless, the interaction of Indian and Colombian companies has resulted in business alliances are currently good examples of how new models of business and joint ventures can render benefits to both Indian and Colombian companies.

Colombia and India share a warm and friendly relationship with significant potential for growth. As both nations are important players in our respective regions, deepening bilateral bonds would also be the result of a deeper engagement of India with the LAC region.

2.What are the key areas of cooperation and potential areas for further collaboration between the two countries to enhance the trade and economy ties?

Colombia-India bilateral trade have been growing consistently, if in 2019/2020 was around 1.9 USD billion, after covid, in 2021/2022 it was 4.3 billion.

India’s exports to Colombia are well diversified, with products ranging from pharmaceuticals to auto parts, machinery and IT solutions services and goods, engineering products, chemicals, cotton, iron, and steel products.

On the Colombian side, the exports of goods are mainly crude oil, coal and gold. This reflects a traditional trend in the Colombian exports to India as well as a sustained requirement for energy from India.

The main non-mining energy products exported from Colombia to India have been aluminum waste and scrap, polyvinyl chloride, tropical wood and agrochemical. However, they represent less than 10% of our exports and this is a challenge.

The aspiration of Colombia is pursuing health sovereignty and food sovereignty through a comprehensive reindustrialization based on an IT developed industrial production and reducing the carbon print by encouraging the use of alternative sources of energy.

Therefore, there are investment opportunities for Indian companies willing to go on partnerships in Colombia in the fields of vaccines production and biotechnology, electric mobility, wind and hydro power, agro-industrial production and applied information technologies.

Regarding investments, our two countries signed the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments in 2012, as well as a Tax Treaty to eliminate Double Taxation (ADT) in 2013.  On these grounds, India has been an interesting investor in Colombia, with a cumulative flow of foreign direct investment in Colombia of USD 98 million in 2020 / 2022.

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