Bogota, Bogota, Colombia - April, 17.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was received on 17 April by his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro at the Casa de Narino, with all the honours befitting a presidential figure. But the meeting between the two heads of state goes beyond symbolism: both are aware of the regional difficulties, especially with the significant decline of the Argentine economy, the third largest in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.

In the bilateral relationship between Brazil and Colombia, there is a multiplicity of common interests: for a start, the two countries share the Amazon, a rainforest that both governments have pledged to protect; to this is added a commercial exchange that Petro and Lula want to consolidate; and a vast array of environmental, educational, hunger and poverty issues, as well as cultural ones. The Brazilian head of state inaugurated the Business Forum with the Colombian leader, which will bring together 300 businessmen and women until tomorrow; he met with them at lunch.

The video shows various of the meeting and joint press conference.

SOUNDBITE: Lula Da Silva, President of Brazil
"We have an opportunity today, one that we have never had before, to work to unify South America. Maybe Colombia will be able to participate in the BRICS, it will participate in some G20 meetings and I will certainly participate in the COP on Biodiversity in Colombia. This continent will continue to be a zone of peace because only peace brings progress, war brings death and destruction and we are not interested in that.

SOUNDBITE: Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia
"We are talking about the Amazon rainforest, which should be a space that brings us together, both Brazil and Colombia, and which in the past has been a scenario of distancing rather than of articulation and union, and this cannot continue to be the case. We want to advance police, military, social and economic agreements that all tend to preserve one of the three climatic pillars of planet Earth".