Talks begin today in Norway between the Colombian government and Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Ahead of the negotiations, Kristian Berg of Norway’s Peace Research Institute Oslo said addressing economic inequality and establishing lasting trust will be pivotal to a successful agreement.

Kristian Berg: “The challenges in Colombia are certainly running very, very deep. Trust is in itself a key problem, given that the last negotiations and the ceasefire concluded in the context of those negotiations were basically misused by the government to clamp down on some of its adversaries. Also the economic inequality in Colombia is of massive dimensions, and one critical issue in the negotiations will be the ability to really look at economic redistribution.”

The talks are due to move on to Cuba after concluding in Norway.