Caracas, Venezuela, April 14 (SP). The following is the text of the joint press release of the meeting between the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela, Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Hugo Chávez Frías at Caracas:

“The Presidents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Colombia, Hugo Chávez Frías and Álvaro Uribe Vélez met on April 14th in Caracas, along with both delegations.

In a fraternal environment, inspired on the liberator Simón Bolívar’s ideals and in a close brotherhood and understanding atmosphere, the Presidents went trough bilateral subjects in the fields of energy, commerce, finance, infrastructure, environment and agriculture, as well as the existing consulting mechanisms between both countries.

In the field of energy, the Head of States announced the creation of the work groups, agreed in the past meeting of the Foreign Ministers on March 18th, in alternative energy, vehicular natural gas, domestic gas, electric exchange and multi-purpose pipeline.

Likewise, they expressed their satisfaction with the establishment of the High Standard Committee, created to monitoring the five established groups and evaluate the progress of the border fuel supply schemes.  

About commerce, the Presidents urged their team to move forward, in a resolute way, to a prompt beginning of the negotiations of the Economic Complementation Agreement.
They approved the subscription of:

1. The License Agreement of Vehicle Importation from Colombia.
2. The Understanding Memorandum for the Electric Energy Supply from Puerto Inírida (Colombia) to San Fernando de Atabajo (Venezuela)
3. The Intention Letter for the Constitution of a credit line to promote exportations and importations between both countries in the field of micro, small and medium companies.
4. The Intention Letter for the Constitution of a Strategic Cross-Border Venezuelan - Colombian Fund, destined to promote and finance Cross-Border Reach Projects in the fields of transportation, health, environment, education, nourishment, agriculture, energy and infrastructure, among others.
5. The Intention Letter for the creation of the Commercial Exchange Committee of local currencies between both countries.

Relating to infrastructure subjects, the Presidents requested their ministers to make a cross-border technical inspection at the border zone, next April 23, in order to define the investment for the extension of the Simón Bolívar bridge, and also consider the stretch of the Agua Clara-Guarumito-La Fría routes.

Venezuela commended the decision of the Colombian Government to finance the study of the engineering project of Guarumito Bridge, required to finish the design of this important route interconnection.

Both leaders asked their Foreign Ministers to hold a meeting with the Cross-Border High Standard Committee on the last two weeks of May 2009 in Bogotá, in order to go through the work and define a plan of action to the existing cross-border mechanisms.

As well, they consented that the XII Limit Demarcation Committee Conference (XII Conferencia de la Comisión Mixta Colombo - Venezolana Demarcadora de Límites)  to meet on the last two weeks of May and that the V Meeting for the Study of the Common Basins can be hold in June 2009 (V Reunión de la Comisión Técnica Binacional para el Estudio Integral de las Cuencas Hidrográficas de Uso Común Venezuela – Colombia).

Both Presidents were optimistic about the progress of discussions and cross-border agreements for a successful fight against drug trafficking. Regarding to it , they asked their Foreign Ministers to promptly subscribe, in the context of the Drug Mixed Committee, the update of the current agreement between Colombia and Venezuela for the Prevention, Control and Repression of Illegal Drug Trafficking of 1978, according to the United Nations Convention against illegal drug trafficking of 1988.

In addition, they will help to promote with other Caribbean countries the participation of their baseball leagues, looking for the creation of a Major League Baseball Division of the Caribbean. 

Both Presidents agreed to emphasize in the importance of mutual trust between their countries and governments and hoped that this trust reaffirm and keep the union and development of the nations.