Colombian President Petro Holds First Face-To-Face Talks With Trump At White House Amid Tensions

Last Updated:February 04, 2026, 00:37 IST

Meeting comes weeks after Trump called Petro a ‘sick man’ fuelling cocaine trade and threatened action against Colombia

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his counterpart, US President Donald Trump, meet at the White House in Washington. (IMAGE: AFP)

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and US President Donald Trump held their first face-to-face talks at the White House on Tuesday, seeking to repair relations strained for months over Venezuela, drug trafficking and US military actions in the region.

The meeting came only weeks after Trump publicly threatened Petro and accused him of allowing cocaine to flood into the United States.

“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice," Trump told reporters on the eve of the visit. “He changed his attitude very much."

Photos released by the Colombian presidency showed the two leaders shaking hands warmly in the West Wing colonnade before heading into the Oval Office for private talks. But the visit was kept deliberately low-profile. Petro arrived through a side entrance with none of the ceremonial welcome usually given to foreign heads of state, AFP correspondents reported.

The White House said the talks were being held behind closed doors. Images later showed the leaders seated together, accompanied by US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Diplomats in Bogotá had feared Petro might receive a public rebuke similar to the Oval Office dressing down given to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year.

Trump said the focus of the meeting would be drugs and regional security. “We’ll be talking about drugs, because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country," he said.

Petro struck a conciliatory note shortly before the talks, writing on X that he was “determined to continue strengthening the relationship between two nations that share a common goal: the fight against drug trafficking."

Referring to recent US strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats that have killed more than 100 people, Petro added that he wanted cooperation “from an approach that prioritizes life and peace in our territories."

‘Sick Man’

The encounter marked a sharp turnaround after months of bitter exchanges. In the wake of a US military raid on Caracas that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Trump warned Petro to “watch his ass" and suggested that similar action against Colombia “sounds good to me."

Trump had also lashed out at Petro personally, saying last month that Colombia was “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States."

“He’s not gonna be doing it very long, let me tell you," Trump said at the time.

Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, responded in recent days by calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide" in Gaza and describing the US capture of Maduro as a kidnapping. The Colombian leader even urged supporters to take to the streets of Bogotá during his White House visit.

Yet both sides have taken steps to cool tensions. Colombia last week agreed to accept US deportation flights, reversing a decision that had triggered a major diplomatic row. Petro also authorised the extradition of an accused drug lord to the United States after months of suspending such transfers.

“I mean, he’s been very nice over the last month or two," Trump said on Monday. “He was certainly critical before that, but somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. I look forward to seeing him."

Petro arrived in Washington with a delegation that included Foreign Relations Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio and Defence Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez. Trump was joined by Rubio, Vance and Republican Senator Bernie Moreno.

Relations Deteriorate

Just minutes before the meeting began, Petro released a video describing himself as a leader who had long fought drug traffickers. “We have truly suffered its effects directly," he said, referring to the impact of the narcotics trade on his family and country.

Relations deteriorated further after Trump launched a series of unprecedented military strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. At least 126 people have been killed in 36 such operations, according to AP reports.

The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Petro, his family and senior officials last year over allegations of involvement in the drug trade, penalties that had to be waived to allow the Colombian leader to travel to Washington this week.

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