Colombia to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
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Colombia's President Gustavo Petro will sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative to strengthen bilateral ties.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING – Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he plans to sign up to China’s Belt and Road initiative, potentially boosting Beijing’s growing influence while further souring his relationship with the US.
“We have decided to take a profound step forward between China and Latin America,” Mr Petro said from the Great Wall of China on May 12, during a state visit. Any commercial treaty would need to be approved by Colombia’s Congress.
Mr Petro made his comments at the start of his visit to China, during which he is set to meet President Xi Jinping.
His attempt to strengthen ties with China threatens Colombia’s already shaky relationship with the US, its largest trading partner, to which it exports oil, cut flowers and coffee. Mr Petro had a run-in earlier in 2025 with President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs
“President Petro’s rapprochement with China is a great opportunity for Ecuadorian roses and Central American coffee,” the Trump administration’s outgoing Latin America envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone said last week.
In recent years, Chinese companies have invested billions of dollars in Colombia, including the construction of Bogota’s first metro line. The Andean nation has historically been Washington’s strongest ally in the region, and remains one of the few countries in South America that still trades more with the US than it does with China.
More than a dozen other Latin American nations have already signed on to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Beyond the US
Colombian Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia has said her country is seeking “to expand our options to other parts of the world” beyond the US.
As the temporary president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, known as Celac, Mr Petro is set to participate in a Chinese forum with Celac on May 13.
“Even if the next president of Colombia disapproves of the signed document, they won’t be able to turn down the money in a world where Colombia’s previous benefactor, the US, has significantly cut funding,” Mr James Bosworth, founder of political risk firm Hxagon, said in a research note. BLOOMBERG
