US Vice President Joe Biden highlighted Monday in Bogota the new agenda between his country and Colombia, at the start of a six-day Latin American tour that is also to take him to Trinidad and Tobago and to Brazil, dpa reported. At the end of a meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Biden praised the fact that ties, which have traditionally focused on security and anti-narcotics efforts, have now diversified to other areas. Santos said the free-trade agreement between the two countries, which has been in place for just over a year, was discussed in the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, along with energy, education and environmental issues and security. Like US President Barack Obama did in his visit to Mexico and Costa Rica earlier this month, Biden stressed that the United States is increasingly interested in cooperating with Latin America, noting it can not only assist its partners in that region but also benefit from ties with them. Biden also praised Colombia's efforts for peace, a day after the Colombian government and the leftist rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached key agreement on land reforms in their broader peace talks in Cuba. Biden arrived in Bogota Sunday and was scheduled to leave for Trinidad and Tobago later Monday. He was set to travel to Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and to Brasilia on Thursday, before returning to Washington on Friday.
