Foreign secretary kicks off Latin American tour which he hopes will highlight trade opportunities

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Boris Johnson has put the customs union row 6,000 miles behind him as he kicked off a five-day trip to Latin America by feeding rescued manatees in the Peruvian rainforest.

After a bruising week in which he was outnumbered in Theresa May’s Brexit inner cabinet over the backstop plan for Northern Ireland, the foreign secretary was back to his day job of showcasing Britain.

Johnson held talks on Saturday with the Peruvian president, Martín Vizcarra, highlighting the fact that he was the first foreign secretary to visit Peru for more than 50 years. The pair discussed cracking down on wildlife trafficking, and the economic crisis in Venezuela.

Like the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, Johnson is keen to underline the prospects for boosting British exports to non-EU countries as Brexit looms, and hopes the trip – which will also take in Argentina and Chile – will highlight trade opportunities.

To that end, he visited a vast, dusty site on the edge of Peru’s capital, Lima, which will become the athletes’ village for next year’s Pan American Games, which Peru is hosting.

British contractors Mace and Arup have been involved in the project, and Johnson marked the opening of Mace’s Lima office.

At the Amazon Rescue Centre in Iquitos, at the edge of the rainforest, Johnson fed a pair of manatees, endangered freshwater mammals hunted for their meat.

His itinerary also included visiting a remote village school and a helicopter ride up the Amazon, where UK aid has paid for a solar battery to power lighting and laptops.

Chatting through a translator to a small group of schoolgirls, Johnson asked them about Harry Potter and the prospects of the Peruvian football team in this summer’s World Cup.

He also signed a series of agreements with the Peruvian foreign minister, pledging to hold regular political dialogue.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, at a remote river station, Johnson said: “I’m delighted by the strength of this relationship. It strikes me that like the Amazon itself, it will now flow on, irresistibly and unstoppably, getting ever wider and deeper.”