News story: Foreign Secretary’s visit to Latin America, May 2018

The Foreign Secretary’s visit includes:

• a trip to the Amazon to see first-hand the work of an animal rescue centre to tackle the illegal wildlife trade in Peru
• representing the UK at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss a range of global issues with his counterparts
• vising a British Council funded pilot project in Chile which aims to advance digital literacy and coding skills particularly among female students

Peru

The Foreign Secretary’s time in Peru includes:

• visiting Iquitos, where he and the Peruvian Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio visited an animal rescue centre to see animals rescued as part of crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade
• visiting a remote community on an island in the Amazon River to see the education challenges in Peru, where 34% of rural girls are illiterate, and launching a UK-funded solar energy project that is providing energy for the 140-pupil school
• in Lima, he visited the site of the Lima 2019 Pan American and ParaPan American Games, the world’s fourth largest sporting event in the world; the UK is already providing technical support to help deliver the Games

The Foreign Secretary said:

It’s been wonderful to see the way our relationship is developing and intensifying. We’ve discussed all the things that the UK and Peru can do together, to save endangered wildlife, to help promote the education of women and girls around the world and to build our common prosperity.

We’ve today announced an infrastructure taskforce so that UK expertise can help the Peruvians as they go forward next year to the Pan-American Games and building a wonderful new metro system under Lima.

Argentina

The Foreign Secretary has arrived in Argentina and where he will represent the UK at G20 summit.

In the first visit by a British Foreign Secretary to Argentina in 22 years, the Foreign Secretary joined Foreign Minister Faurie, Defence Minister Agaud and Security Minister Bullrich at a ceremony at the ‘Monument to the Fallen’ He. Mr Johnson laid a wreath in honour of those who died on both sides of the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict.