Bogotá, Colombia – Several top European figureheads said yesterday they would not be attending this week’s high-profile meeting between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) in Santa Marta, Colombia.
Among the leaders announcing their absence were French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The dropouts come amid a widening rift between Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who is hosting the summit, and U.S. President Donald Trump; last month, the White House imposed severe sanctions on Petro after alleging without evidence that he is an “illegal drug dealer.”
The EU-CELAC conference will take place from November 9-10 and is a key meeting between leaders in the two regions, which enjoy cooperation in areas including trade, development, security and environment.
This week’s summit is the fourth since 2013 and is aimed at strengthening cooperation between the two regions on “the three-way energy, digital, and environmental transition,” according to organizers.
But yesterday’s high-profile dropouts may suggest the conference’s objectives are being hijacked by the White House’s increasingly aggressive policy in the region.
Since early September, the Trump administration has massed forces in the Southern Caribbean and carried out a campaign of strikes on alleged drug boats which have killed over 60 people.
Petro’s criticism of the U.S. operations, and rising coca production in Colombia, led the White House to sanction him and members of his inner circle last month, barring them from the United States and freezing their assets there.
The military build-up has also stoked tensions with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro; in an interview with CBS on Sunday, Trump said the leader’s days were numbered, fuelling theories that the White House’s long-term goal is regime change through force.
As Trump dials up his military campaign in the Southern Caribbean, it will be increasingly difficult to avoid the subject during this week’s summit; European figureheads, who already tread a delicate line with Trump, may be put in an awkward spot not only due to the conference’s location on the Caribbean coast but also Petro’s outspoken tendencies.
However, there may be other, more benign reasons for the dropouts.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Mauricio Jaramillo, Colombia’s deputy foreign minister for multilateral affairs, said the cancellations owed to “scheduling issues.”
Indeed, the EU-CELAC summit overlaps with the COP30 climate conference, which begins on Monday in Belém, Brazil. There are also no direct flights from Santa Marta to Brazil, complicating travel logistics. The withdrawals of top EU leaders may simply reflect the inconvenience of travelling to two major conferences in the same week.
Responding to the dropouts, the Colombian government maintained that the meeting would not be affected: “We are analyzing the scenarios, but there is no reason that the summit would be in any way at risk of taking place,” said Jaramillo.
Many leaders from Latin America and Europe are still planning to attend the conference, including: Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; António Costa, President of the European Council; Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain and Dick Schoof, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
Featured image description: The EU-CELAC summit venue in Santa Marta.
Image credit: Cancillería de Colombia
This article originally appeared on The Bogotá Post and was re-published with permission.
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