Colombia’s Santos asks Trump to support peace process

President Juan Manuel Santos spoke with US President Donald Trump on the phone Saturday and asked him to support Colombia’s peace plan with FARC rebels, the Latin American leader said on Twitter.

Santos, in a series of posts, described their conversation as “productive.” “@POTUS expressed his support for peace and desire to maintain the best relations with Colombia,” Santos said, referring to Trump by his Twitter handle.

He said he asked Trump to support approval of the Colombia peace plan in the US Congress.

“(Trump) said he was very interested and would take charge of it personally,” said Santos, who added that Trump extended an invitation for him to visit the White House.

The call lasted about 25 minutes, Santos’s office said.

The United States has pledged $450 million to support implementation of the peace agreement signed in November between Bogota and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), bringing an end to a 52-year conflict.

Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in negotiating an end to the conflict that grew out of a crushed uprising over land rights in the 1960s.

It killed more than 260,000 people and left 60,000 missing, according to authorities. As of early Sunday, the White House Press Office had yet to release a read-out of the call.