The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, concluded his official tour of the Middle East on Monday in the State of Qatar — a journey that included stops in Saudi Arabia and Egypt — with the aim of diversifying diplomatic relations, attracting investment, and promoting complex peace processes.
The arrival in Doha marked the end of a trip that began last week. During his stay in Qatar, Petro held key meetings — among them with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani — in which topics such as energy cooperation, education, Latin America’s autonomous development, and support for regional peace initiatives were discussed.
This trip underscores Colombia’s determination to expand its diplomacy toward the Arab world, especially after the alignment shown by its president with the Palestinian cause, which has earned him open sympathies among several countries in the region.
Before departing last night for Qatar, Gustavo Petro met in Egypt with the president of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas, where he once again called on the international community to recognize the so-called two-state solution as the only way to end the violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Colombia’s Petro ends his Middle East tour in Qatar
The Colombian president’s agenda in Qatar was built around three main pillars. First, expanding spaces for investment and economic cooperation: Petro and Qatari interlocutors explored opportunities for Arab companies to participate in Colombia, as well as financing mechanisms for strategic sectors.
Second, promoting education projects: In his meeting with the emir, Petro proposed expanding initiatives for training, academic exchange, and technical cooperation between both countries as part of an effort to enhance Colombia’s productive and human capacities.
Third — and perhaps the most symbolically charged — was the commitment to peace processes: Qatar appears as a player willing to mediate in conflicts and open channels for dialogue. In this context, Petro emphasized the importance of Colombia having allies capable of contributing to the transition toward peaceful and sustainable development.
On this point, the president elaborated on his idea that Latin America must stop depending exclusively on traditional power poles and build its own “autonomous development pole,” one that strengthens its capacities, diversifies its ties, and reinforces its sovereignty.
In the words of the Colombian presidency, the tour “concludes in Qatar a successful official round through the Middle East.” But behind the triumphant tone, there are also questions about how those difficult agreements will be implemented, the pace of the commitments, and their specific conditions.
It is worth remembering that, in that country, talks have been taking place for several months between the Colombian state and the illegal armed group known as the Gulf Clan, with Qatar acting as mediator and facilitator.
Colombia advocates for Latin America as an independent economic and military bloc
In an interview with the Al Jazeera news network, President Petro stated that “the path for South America and Latin America is not to enter into competing economic blocs, one against another, but to build our own autonomous and sovereign pole of development.” That includes “an independent South American NATO, separate from the interests of the United States, separate from the interests of Russia, that can speak in the world with its own voice, according to our own interests, and seek dialogue for humanity.”
Petro emphasized that “what must be sought is a dialogue between civilizations. The clash between civilizations leads to barbarism, which is what we are seeing — Gaza is the example, and the Caribbean follows. Whereas dialogue between civilizations leads to wisdom, to a free humanity.”
In this sense, he argued that only in this way could the region “take on the challenges of overcoming the main current problems — decarbonization, inequality, poverty, slavery in many sectors of humanity — and a reconstruction from another point of view, from decarbonization, to compete even within capitalism.”
In that scenario, he said, “the United States could be left behind if it insists on oil, as Trump is doing — behind in technology, behind in knowledge.” But if the northern country reconsiders that stance, “South America would be its greatest ally, because it is the closest region with clean energy potential.”
Drug trafficking: Petro criticizes the US strategy
As an example of that change, he pointed to the fight against drug trafficking, which, he said, cannot be solved “by firing missiles at boats carrying young and poor people, because those who operate the boats are people from the Caribbean islands who are hired by traffickers to transport goods from place to place until they reach the United States — and increasingly Europe.”
Gustavo Petro stressed that the illicit business has changed, since “the drug trafficker is not living in the coca leaf cultivation zones of Colombia; those areas are inhabited by peasants battered by violence for decades in semi-jungle and remote regions. And the traffickers are not on the boats either — there are young people there who have no access to university, no opportunities.”
In this sense, the Colombian president reiterated that drug mafias have transformed and that “the drug trafficker lives where luxury exists, because he has a lot of money — and luxury is near New York’s great park, in Miami, in Paris, in Dubai — posing a serious threat to Arab societies. And the drug trafficker is no longer Colombian; he is Mexican, Albanian, Italian, French, and from Kosovo.”
Therefore, he underlined, “there has been a greed within the U.S. government to keep control — it has always been that way — over oil as the basic input of its economy and great capital, and that is not how the problem of cocaine trafficking will be solved.”
The Palestinian question: Gustavo Petro’s meeting with Mahmoud Abbas
Within the regional agenda, and still on Egyptian soil, Gustavo Petro met yesterday with the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. In this meeting, Colombia reaffirmed its position regarding the conflict in the Middle East, while at the same time seeking to project its role as an international player committed to peace and dialogue.
The discussion addressed three important points: The right of Palestinians to a negotiated solution based on justice and international recognition — in which Colombia has advocated for a two-state solution with borders before 1967; Colombia’s commitment to participate in — or at least facilitate — mediation spaces, even beyond its immediate sphere of influence; and the symbolic connection between Colombia’s own peace efforts and the need for reconciliation in the Middle East, using Colombia’s experience as part of its international narrative.
In fact, the moment went far beyond a mere protocol event, as Gustavo Petro’s voice was among the first in the world to describe Israel’s military operation in Gaza, launched in Oct. 2023, as a “genocide,” something that was acknowledged in the Arab world.
In the interview Petro granted to Al Jazeera last weekend, he spoke of the need for the United States “to recognize the State of Palestine” as “a fundamental step forward for peace,” just “as Colombia and many other states around the world have done.”
In the same vein, he added that such recognition by the United States “would represent a real opening, a real willingness to end the violence through a conference in which the Palestinian people can democratically express their will and their plurality.” President Petro noted that the majority of NATO member countries had already decided to recognize the State of Palestine.