Colombian President Santos Government’s reorientation of the nation´s foreign policy to focus on South America continued this week when Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín met on Monday with her Brazilian counterpart Antonio de Aguiar Patriota.

During cordial talks between the two, agreement was reached on a number of items that will advance the bilateral agenda of the two countries.

Minister Patriota declared his support for the peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC, claiming that the “success of the negotiations will bring great benefits not only to the people of Colombia, but to the image of South America”.

The primary subject on the agenda was cultivating the growth in trade between the two countries, with both countries agreeing the need to implement a special border regime between the neighbouring border cities of Leticia in Colombia and Tabatinga in Brazil.

Among the commitments made at the meeting was a Memorandum of Understanding to restructure and strengthen the Neighbourhood and Integration Committee, which assists cooperation in the border regions of the two countries in a number of salient policy areas including customs procedures, the environment, and issues for indigenous peoples.

Also agreed was a pledge to further academic cooperation between Colombia’s San Carlos Diplomatic Academy and Brazil’s Fundação Getulio Vargas higher education institution.

The agreements mark a continuation of the warming of relations between the two countries over the past couple of years, a friendship driven primarily by pragmatism. The stagnation in both countries’ traditional export markets, the US and the EU, has necessitated a strategic shift in trade policy. Since 2004 trade between Colombia and Brazil has more than quadrupled.

Nonetheless, in spite of a huge border of over 1,000 miles between the two countries, trade between the two countries remains ridden with obstacles. The biggest of these is naturally occurring – the Amazon rainforest – which makes overland transport links between the two countries difficult.

According to the Inter-American Development Bank it costs more for a company based in Colombia to export to Brazil than it does for one in Canada.

However, with enhanced transport links and cross-border cooperation this situation could improve in the coming years.