Lima, February 13 (RHC) -– Peruvian President Ollanta Humala began a Middle East tour on Thursday that will take him to Israel, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority-ruled West Bank.

The official trip, which ends February 24th, aims to strengthen Peru's relations with the region and promoting business links, official Andina news agency said.

Lima hopes to "promote shared interests for development, environmental preservation and inter-cultural dialogue, as well as enrich mutually beneficial exchange in trade and investment, and cooperation in key fields like energy, water resources management, agriculture, infrastructure, education and technology transfer.

In related news, on Wednesday President Humala strongly reaffirmed that the so-called land triangle of 3.7 hectares is under Peru's sovereignty on the sidelines of the recently-held 8th Pacific Alliance Summit.

After holding a one-on-one meeting with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera, the Peruvian leader conveyed the position of his country on the matter and stressed the Andean nation has control over the land triangle according to a land boundary treaty signed in 1929 by the two nations.

The agreement establishes a borderline starting on the seashore, at a point called Concordia, which is 10 kilometers north of Chile's Lluta River. Nevertheless, this fact is rejected by Chilean authorities who claim that the two countries' border does not begin at the Concordia point but at the Boundary Stone No. 1, which is 268 meters inland.

"We have talked [about the topic], each of us has a position, but while carrying the voice of the Peruvian State I have strongly reaffirmed the Peruvian sovereignty over the triangle of land," Humala told Canal N television network.

Humala noted that if Chile plans to withdraw from the Pact of Bogotá that is a sovereign decision of the neighboring country.