The president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, welcomed José Antonio Kast this Friday in La Paz, in what is supposed to be the first state visit of a head of government from Chile to the Andean country in more than seven decades. The trip comes months after both leaders signed a memorandum of understanding at the beginning of the year aimed at strengthening cooperation in trade, security, and water resources, among other areas.
Paz received his Chilean counterpart at the Palacio Quemado, in a visit that opens "a new stage of dialogue and bilateral cooperation" between the two countries, he celebrated in a message on social media.
"The agenda includes agreements and joint actions in economic, commercial, energy, and border security matters, with the aim of advancing solutions to shared challenges and generating opportunities for both peoples," added the Office of the Bolivian president.
In the same vein, Kast highlighted in a brief post on social media that "today, after 71 years, a president of Chile returns on an official visit to La Paz" --the last to do so was Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in August 1955-- and called to "build together, the future of our nations."
The Chilean president was received with military honors in the Murillo square of La Paz by his Bolivian counterpart, along with members of the Government and the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, before moving to the seat of the Executive for the signing of up to four memorandums of understanding in different areas such as mining, energy, trade, and security.
Paz emphasized that the cooperation agreement in mining and critical minerals seeks to "leverage Chilean experience and grow our mining sector," while in energy matters both have agreed on "a roadmap for electrical interconnection, a step towards our goal of making Bolivia the energy hub of South America."
Likewise, the two leaders have agreed to strengthen "police coordination and intelligence sharing to tackle organized crime" and drug trafficking along their shared border, while the trade agreement establishes a "route to modernize, expand tariff preferences, and improve rules of origin and sanitary and phytosanitary measures" in the buying and selling of goods.
Kast has bet on the full normalization of bilateral relations with Bolivia and has invited Paz to return the state visit to Chile in 2027, despite the "historical differences" that separate the two countries. "I am not going to pretend that there are no differences, because there are differences. Bolivia has its positions, Chile has its own, and beyond them we have learned something very important. Differences cannot be excuses to be paralyzed," he has declared.
This is not the first time that Paz and Kast coincide, since the latter attended the inauguration of the Bolivian president in November 2025. The Bolivian Executive broke its diplomatic relations with Chile in March 1978 and, since then, La Paz and Santiago have kept their contacts reduced to the consular level.