The relationship between the Colombia and Nicaragua has evolved amid conflicts over the San Andrés y Providencia Islands located in the Caribbean Sea close to the Nicaraguan shoreline and the maritime boundaries covering 150,000 km2 that included the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and the banks of Roncador, Serrana, Serranilla and Quitasueño as well as the 82nd meridian west which Colombia claims as a border but which the International Court has sided with Nicaragua in disavowing.

In 1985 during the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, Colombia headed by President Belisario Betancur was part of the Contadora Group along Panama, Mexico and Venezuela.

The United Nations-supported group intended to promote peace in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, which were engulfed in internal armed conflicts.

In September 2021, the International Court of Justice heard Nicaragua and Colombia on "alleged violations of sovereign rights and maritime spaces in the Caribbean sea".

[11] The Colombian newspaper El Espectador said that Nicaragua could gain territory in this way by setting a new trial to resolve the maritime boundaries that were not previously established in any of the accords or treaties and the Roncador, Quitasueño y Serrana banks.