The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has defended this Saturday the need to advance towards an economic model less dependent on hydrocarbons amid a rise in tension in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's main energy corridors.
Upon his arrival at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy, held in Barcelona and promoted by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, Petro maintained that the current international crisis evidences the urgency of accelerating the decarbonization of the economy.
Hormuz and the geopolitical cost of oil
The Colombian leader directly linked the conflicts in the Middle East with the global dependence on crude oil and assured that the international agenda of the future must be built "outside of oil".
His words arrive at a time marked by maritime incidents in the Hormuz area, a strategic passage through which an essential part of global oil and gas trade transits.
A summit “for an alternative”
Asked about the political nature of the Barcelona meeting, Petro rejected that it was a meeting against Donald Trump and defined it as a forum "for an alternative in the world".
In his opinion, the current international context is marked by confusion and by dangerous decisions for global stability, for which he called for more international cooperation and solutions focused on peace and the energy transition.