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Colombian President Santos to visit Sarkozy next year

13 November 2010 01:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris end-January, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said Friday that Santos plans to be in France January 25-26.

France has at times played a leading role in the decades-long conflict in Colombia, particularly during the captivity of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Betancourt, who also holds French citizenship, was a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) from 2002-08.

Holguin was in Paris this week, and met among others with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Apart from reinforcing security ties, Holguin said that Colombia wants to boost cultural exchanges with France and get Paris’ support for a trade agreement that Bogota has negotiated with the European Union.