President Michael D Higgins says Ireland wants to be a bridge between the EU and Colombia to help that country's peace process.
The President made his keynote speech in Bogota after meeting with government officials, the political opposition and FARC representatives.
In his speech at Colombia's national university President Higgins said Ireland could help because of its experience of peace building.
"We in Ireland understand the difficult and painful choices that peace and reconciliation can entail and we also understand and were grateful for support that came to us from our friends at critical junctures on the path to peace."
"All of us Irish would like to see Ireland act as a bridge for Colombia to the European Union, a bridge that would contribute to advancing the development of your connections to the European region, and we would, in turn, welcome the opportunity for the further development of the bonds between us so that Colombia can act as a bridge for us to Latin America".
He referred to one of the most controversial aspects of the revised peace agreement which still allows for reduced sentences and reparation in lieu of jail for those guilty of serious war crimes.
"It was greatly inspiring for us in the international community to hear that support for the peace process was so strong in areas of the greatest number of victims, but further that many direct victims of the Colombian conflict have accepted the need for a delicately balanced transitional justice architecture which allows for potentially significant reduction in sentences in return for a commitment to truth and guarantees of non-repetition".
He specifically referred to murders committed by state agencies during the 50 year conflict and that the war arose from inequality where 0.4% of landowners held 61% of rural land.
The President welcomed government plans to redistribute 10 million hectares of land.
He pointed out that this compared to Ireland's total of just 1m hectares of arable land.
"It has been a generous and encompassing process that does not, and I hope will never, shirk from examining the core root causes of the long and bitter conflict, including issues of income poverty, land poverty, that call out for land reform and rural development".
