Thanks for your time, Mr. And I want to start by expressing my gratitude to Special Representative Massieu for his briefing and his team’s hard work.
In addition, I’d like to thank Father de Roux and Ms. Piamba for their briefings, as well as welcome Foreign Minister Ramirez to our meeting today.
We are grateful for your commitment to this Council, Foreign Minister, throughout your tenure.
President, Today, I want to stress three things:
I’d like to start by congratulating the Colombian people for exercising their right to vote in the presidential election last month.
We applaud political actors, representatives, and volunteers for their commitment to making sure the election was free, open, and recognized by all parties.
We applaud President-elect Petro’s dedication to tackling the lingering issues and fully implementing the Final Peace Agreement.
As we’ve heard, the biggest problem will be providing protection for groups who are most vulnerable to violence, eviction, and incarceration.
We applaud the incoming administration’s commitment to setting up the foundations for a lasting peace in Colombia and believe that the restarting of negotiations with the ELN will help achieve this.
Second, the UK applauds the release of the Truth Commission’s final report, which is an important step in Colombia’s process of rapprochement.
We honour the Commissioners’ tireless efforts in completing this enormous task as well as the thousands of victims who bravely testified.
The UK is dedicated to assisting all parties in putting the Commission’s recommendations into action and to backing the committee that will ensure that they are done so.
Third, we keep pushing for the expansion of rural reform. Despite the fact that significant steps have already been taken, the Territorially Focused Development Plans and the multipurpose cadastre should move forward more quickly in order to boost rural development and support the transformation of conflict-affected areas.
Mr. President, in conclusion, the UK is still steadfastly dedicated to helping Colombia achieve permanent peace and assisting the Colombian people in overcoming the remaining obstacles.
I appreciate it.