Colombia\u2019s president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, announced on Sunday, July 26, that his administration, which will take office on August 7, will close at least 14 embassies, including the one in Romania, as part of a reorganization of the country\u2019s diplomatic network.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, during the mandate of the current president of the South American country, Gustavo Petro, Colombia had reopened its embassy in Romania<\/a> after 24 years of direct diplomatic absence between the two states.<\/p>\n The new president presented another course regarding the embassies. \u201cIn a first stage, I will close the embassies in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Romania, Senegal, and South Africa,\u201d De la Espriella said in a speech on his social media accounts in which he also announced the suspension of the opening of the mission in Palestine, according to Euronews English<\/a>.<\/p>\n De la Espriella assured that these measures \u201cdo not mean the severing of diplomatic relations\u201d with the affected countries, except for Cuba and Nicaragua, arguing that \u201cthere will be no link with tyrannies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the president-elect explained that Colombian citizens in the countries where embassies will be closed will continue to receive assistance through the concurrent representation of other diplomatic missions in the region and that the reorganization aims \u201cto make the foreign service more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of this strategy, Abelardo de la Espriella also announced the reopening of Colombia\u2019s Embassy in Israel, which will operate in Jerusalem, a promise the new president made during the presidential campaign, and the opening of a diplomatic mission in Nigeria, to reorganize the South American country\u2019s presence in Africa.<\/p>\n He also indicated that he will unify some diplomatic representations which, in his opinion, \u201cduplicate their functions,\u201d such as Colombia\u2019s embassies in France and at UNESCO in Paris, as well as those in Italy and at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, so that a single ambassador will assume both representations.<\/p>\n The president-elect added that within the first 100 days of his government, he will request a technical audit of the remaining diplomatic representations in order to assess their continuity and stated that the resources saved through these measures will be used to strengthen sectors such as security, health, education, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n