President Donald Trump said Friday he will meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House during the first week of February.
"I look forward to having a meeting with Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, in the White House, during the first week of February," he posted on his Truth Social page Friday afternoon.
"I am sure it will work out very well for Colombia, and the U.S.A., but, cocaine and other drugs must be STOPPED from coming into the United States," he added in the message.
Trump's announcement came after he said earlier this week that he and Petro had exchanged a friendly phone call and that he'd invited him to the White House.
"It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had," Trump posted on his social media site. "I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future."
However, Trump's tone has warmed considerably toward Petro, considering that after the operation to remove and arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he quipped that "Colombia is very sick too" and he accused Petro of "making cocaine and selling it to the United States."
Petro, meanwhile, has called the United States' Venezuelan operation an "abhorrent" violation of Latin American sovereignty by "enslavers" and compared it to Nazi Germany's 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.
However, Colombia has long been among America's staunchest Latin American allies, and the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas for the past three decades.
In October, the administration imposed sanctions against Petro, his family and a member of his government, accusing them of involvement in the global drug trade.
It also added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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