2024-03-12 07:53:10
President Noboa points out that there will be no triangulation of weapons and that he does not agree with their delivery to Ukraine.
President Daniel Noboa defended on February 22, 2024 his decision not to send Russian weapons classified as “scrap” to the United States, after Vladimir Putin’s government threatened banana exports from Ecuador.
Noboa confirmed the decision to CNN and said that he recoiled when he learned that the old Soviet war equipment, which he himself had previously described as “scrap,” would be used in the armed conflict waged by Russia against Ukraine.
«To our surprise, the United States publicly communicated that this was going to be carried out for the armed conflict in Ukraine, we do not want to be part of it,” He added in an interview with that network.
The Noboa Government had agreed with Washington to exchange military equipment of Russian origin considered “scrap” for new weapons valued at USD 200 million, something that was condemned by Moscow.
In the midst of these tensions, which also led to the suspension of five Ecuadorian banana exporters by Russia, came statements from the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States Department of State, Kevin Sullivan.
The high command of the State Department’s office for Latin America assured in Quito that “it is an arrangement to transfer equipment to the government of Ukraine, which is fighting against the Russian invasion of its territory” since February 2022.
«“I understand that it is something that is still being considered in the government of Ecuador and, as I say, they are decisions that correspond to the government,” Sullivan said in an interview with the Teleamazonas channel, within the framework of a visit to expand bilateral relations with Ecuador.
Source: PRIMCIIAS