Pretoria, September 4, 2025. In a fundamental milestone for the development of Colombia's global leadership, Vice President Francia Elena Márquez Mina has made three successful working visits to the African continent in compliance with the Africa Strategy 2022-2026, tracing an unprecedented route in the diplomatic relations with each of the countries visited and establishing solid foundations of continuity and long-term commitment.

Her third visit to Ethiopia, Mozambique, Madagascar and Nigeria, carried out between August 25 and September 2, leaves as a result will power, mechanisms and agendas on South-to-South Cooperation with political alliances and technical exchanges in critical areas within the National Development Plan such as agriculture, agro-industrial production, academic and vocational training, food sovereignty, women's economic autonomy, scientific and technological research and innovations, the energy transition, the care and protection of the environment and its resources, and the growth of trade relations. All this, within the framework of an economic policy that seeks diversification, inclusive growth, greater competitiveness, better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, and fundamentally, the closing of the enormous gaps of inequality and injustice that prevent a dignified and peaceful life for our peoples.

The productive working visit to Mozambique and Madagascar concluded with substantive agreements forged between actors that can turn initiatives and commitments between governments into the realization of concrete, effective and sustainable projects in the long term.

The visionary journey to Africa, articulating the public sector with the private economic sectors, the productive and cultural sectors and with women at the center, following the guidelines of feminist foreign policy, sets the tone for the change that defines this government.

The testimonies of the eleven companies, five of them led by women, all with great experience and competence, from sectors that include Agrobusiness, Technology, Digital and Creative Industries, Service Industries, Metalworking and other Manufacturing Industries, agreed on recognizing the great difference offered by an initiative that seeks and projects businesses in relatively new terrains for our country such as those in Africa, developed hand in hand and with the support of the national government. This also explains the rigor and seriousness with which countries such as Mozambique and Madagascar received the official delegation that, for the first time in decades of diplomatic relations, was present in their territories with high-level officials and companies that showed determination and tangible opportunities of common interest.

Colombia has had a hard time understanding and valuing the political and economic importance of the African continent for its growth and economic and political positioning in the region and in the world. Through this working visit, the eleven companies, the senior officials such as the Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and the Vice Minister of Commerce, the directors and officials of the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, programs and entities such as the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation, the Free and

Productive Women Fund of the Vice Presidency, the ICA,  INVIMA (the regulatory body regulatory body of the safety, quality, and efficacy of medications, food products, and cosmetics) , and the National Centre for Coffee Researchers that were part of the delegation, not only do they know that we are making history, they also have understood very well the enormous map of opportunities offered by the great continent and the roads that make it navigable.

The Africa Strategy 2022-2026 today has solid foundations for its continuity as a long-term State commitment. The purpose of expanding the presence on the African continent and developing an unprecedented relationship with its countries is concrete and is being made effective with the leadership of the Vice-presidency, the technical and political competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State institutions, the business community and the participating civil society.

We are changing relations with Africa in a radically positive way, validating that, under the purposes and principles of South-South Cooperation, Colombia has a prominent future based on its competence and its respectful and balanced relations with African countries.

From South Africa and its twelve concurrencies our Mission receives with pride and commitment the task of ensuring the follow-up, the nurturing of the relations established and the achievement of the objectives and goals of the Africa Strategy of the National Development Plan. 

The Embassy takes this opportunity to thank from the bottom of its heart the generosity and warmth with which the governments of Mozambique and Madagascar received Vice President Francia Elena Márquez Mina and her delegation; the political clarity and technical specificity brought to the working meetings, and the willingness to move forward through mechanisms of understanding for the inauguration of political consultations that contribute to establishing an institutional pillar with traceable impacts on the present and prominent future of our diplomatic relations.

#ColombiaInÁfrica today makes more sense.