A hero whose story dates back to the struggle for independence, the family name behind one of the most representative beverage, sports and cultural associations in the country, as well as a thriving commercial exchange that makes it our main commercial partner in Europe. He great Britain and Peru maintain relations that have developed in various aspects and this year celebrate their bicentennial.

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In commemoration of the 200th anniversary, the British Minister for the Americas and the Caribbean, David Rutley, visited our country and participated in a series of special activities, including a visit to the headquarters of the 2019 Pan American Games and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the protection of the Amazon.

After the ceremony held at the Torre Tagle palace, Minister Rutley received him Trade to discuss relations between our countries, future plans and other topics of regional interest.

– What is the balance of bilateral relations over these 200 years?

I think my visit here made clear the importance of our relationship, which has a deep history and shares many of the same values. The relationship is very strong both in trade and investment as well as in the security response, where we share values, this is visible in our response to what happened in Ukraine. It is a great honor for me to be here to celebrate this important anniversary. Furthermore, following my talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I can confirm that we have a strong agenda for the future.

– Among the latest developments between the two countries, the UK decided to exempt Peruvian citizens from visas, is there another decision in the offing?

It was a landmark decision to lift the visa requirement. And based on this, what is happening now is that tourism opportunities are increasing in both directions. We estimate around 50,000 British nationals will come to Peru this year and we know we can increase this number even further. Especially now with direct flights coming from Latam in December. This was a very exciting time for our relationship.

“We anticipate the possibility of around 50,000 Britons coming to Peru this year and we know we can expand this even further.”

David Rutley British Minister for the Americas and the Caribbean

– Your country is a very special destination for Peruvians who wish to pursue postgraduate studies. Is there any discussion about educational programs?

We’ve had very good conversations about the efforts that the British consulate is making in this regard and the collaboration that we have between universities is also very important. There are huge opportunities in this field and we are very interested in more Peruvian students being able to study in the UK. Furthermore, I hope that as time goes on we will see more young British people wanting to experience what this incredible country has to offer, not just as tourists but also as workers.

– I’m sure many Peruvians would also like to experience Chevening…

I know. We want to help more Peruvians experience Chevening, this is a very competitive scholarship but we have been able to develop several partnerships with companies to increase the number of students. We currently have 280 scholarship recipients (Peruvians) in our graduate network and the great thing about this program is that these young people leave Peru, having lived this experience in the UK but with a commitment to return to their country to make a difference. This is an amazing program. But it’s not just about Chevening scholarships, there are many other educational opportunities.

– During this visit you had the opportunity to meet several Chevening scholarship recipients, what can you tell us about this meeting?

This meeting aims to find out what we can do to promote gender equality. The people I met are doing some pretty important work in the field, mentoring and empowering more young women to enter the world of public service, civil or political. We also had excellent conversations with two former prime ministers of Peru. We want to help stimulate that development here. Women and Girls are a very important aspect of our foreign policy. So it was a pretty wide-ranging conversation about topics we have in common.

“We want to help more Peruvians experience Chevening.”

David Rutley British Minister for the Americas and the Caribbean

– Many people wondered at the time how Brexit would impact relations between their country, in this case Peru, and the UK. After three and a half years, what can you tell us about this?

I believe our country believes strongly in democracy, so when the British people wanted to leave the European Union (EU), we did so. What we’re doing now is trying to achieve our goals in the world, which include more free trade agreements. That’s something we can’t do. We have succeeded in signing an agreement between the Andean countries and the UK, building on what has been achieved with the EU. Now also with the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), where we thank Peru for its support to quickly ratify it. Brexit is something that already happened, now we are moving forward with this agreement and Peru is the perfect partner. If we look at the level of British investment here we will see that it is the highest, not only in mining but also in other fields. I feel we can be strong partners in the field of agrotechnology and the like.

– I understand that for your government, the issue of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas Islands for Argentina) is closed, but a few months ago they had an impasse with the EU because they called the region “Malvinas / Falkland”, what does that mean? Do you think this topic comes back with some frequency?

For us, this is a resolved problem and I think this is also the case for most countries in the world. What we want is to respect the Falkland Islanders’ desire for self-determination. We are talking about the principles of democracy and freedom, one of the most important aspects of which is self-determination. There was a referendum on the islands 10 years ago and the answer was they wanted to remain part of the UK. So, we ask our friends to respect their wishes.

– Argentinian presidential candidate Javier Milei commented some time ago about the possibility of establishing a model similar to that implemented in Hong Kong on the islands, is that possible for you?

As I said, we respect the wishes of the people of the Falkland Islands. We wish the Argentine people success in the democratic process to elect their president, in response we ask that the democratic rights of those living in the Falkland Islands be respected. We don’t think about negotiating sovereignty or anything like that, because for us the most important thing is the self-determination of peoples and we want to respect that.

“There was a referendum in the (Falkland) Islands 10 years ago and the answer was they wanted to stay in the UK. So we ask our friends to respect their wishes.”

David Rutley British Minister for the Americas and the Caribbean