The upcoming summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and EU members, in Santa Marta, Colombia on Nov. 9 and 10, comes at an inauspicious time for global governance, international security, and climate change.
The rules-based international order is splitting at the seams. Horrific conflict, far from being resolved under the Trump Administration’s policy of “peace through strength,” is the norm in most regions, not least Africa. And while the world should be accelerating decarbonisation, climate progress has shot into reverse.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]These are troubling developments, but CELAC and EU nations are committed and have the capacity to put things right. The U.S. government may have turned its back on multilateralism and the scientific consensus on climate change, but our countries have not.
As I co-chair this year’s summit alongside the President of the European Council, António Costa, it is a sense of optimism and togetherness in the face of denialism and divisiveness that must be injected into proceedings. CELAC and the EU in union make up more than 21% of global GDP. We are not rootless trees blowing in the wind. We must stand strong against the storm.
The defence of the environment and indigenous people has been one of the cornerstones of my presidency and a lifelong concern. For this reason, my government has not awarded a single new license for oil and gas exploration. Solar and wind now account for more than 9% of total electricity production in Colombia, up from 1.5% in 2022. A proud moment of my presidency was signing a decree that enshrined the rights of indigenous communities in the environmental governance of their regions.
This Colombian government grasps, like our colleagues in the EU, that we must put life before fossil capital. It is an absurd fallacy that the burning of fossil fuels is cheap. To think so is to attach minimal value to the lives of billions of people—current and future generations—in the Global South.
My pursuit of a more just world—where life is precious, not cheap—is undimmed by the recent onslaught of the U.S. government on my presidency and nation. President Donald Trump described me as an “illegal-drug leader” on Oct. 19. He sanctioned me and has threatened to end assistance to the Colombians that continue to battle bravely against the insidious drug trade.
Colombia rejects this slander from one of our closest economic, diplomatic, and cultural partners—the citizens of which we consider as friends—and I dismiss the nonsensical measures taken against me as politically motivated posturing. The truth must win out.
My administration, in reality, has delivered record cocaine seizures. Government security forces seized 1,764 tonnes of cocaine between August 2022 and November 2024, followed by a further 601 tonnes between January and August 2025. Under my policy of Total Peace, our efforts to submit criminal organizations to justice continue. This is no small feat given that the criminals’ bank accounts and arsenals are fed with narco-dollars by tens of millions of cocaine users in the West.
The support of the U.S. government was crucial in this fight. Whatever the attitudes of the current administration, I will continue to pursue a counter-narcotics and broader security policy that is in the interests of Colombians and Americans alike. To make up for the gap in support, cooperation with our EU partners and others against the global drug trade will be more essential than ever.
Between 2021 and 2024, the EU provided €180 million in funding for Colombia through its Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation instrument. The bloc recognises that my government’s approach to the drugs trade and crime, rooted in the peace process, regional development, and enforcement combined with harm reduction, is the right and just one.
The infamous “war on drugs” did not work. To address the challenges at hand, a measured approach is needed, grounded in the basic principle of respect for human rights, as declared by the UN Human Rights Commission at Colombia’s request in July 2023. What’s more, actions such as the disproportionate use of force through missiles launched at poor boatmen in the Caribbean violate international human rights treaties.
Let us be bold in our beliefs. The interests of humanity are best served by cooperation, not a policy of antagonism that seeks to slice up the world into unhappy spheres of interest, dominated by modern-day colonial overlords. Colombia, with our emphasis on tolerance and progress, will always be on the right side of this impending divide.
