2024-02-20 15:13:06
© Agence France-Presse
Ecuador ruled out delivering obsolete Russian military weapons to Ukraine, through the United States, as the government had suggested days before, Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said on Monday.
“Ecuador will not send any war material to a country that is involved in an international armed conflict,” said Sommerfeld in his presentation before the Transparency and Social Control Commission of Congress.
President Daniel Noboa had announced in January his plan to exchange war material considered “scrap” with the United States in exchange for new equipment to combat powerful criminal gangs associated with international drug cartels.
According to Washington, the equipment would be sent to Ukraine to support its troops on the front against Russia.
Among the material were six MI-type helicopters and long-range rocket launcher and anti-aircraft defense systems, local media indicated.
In exchange, Quito was going to receive new weapons valued at 200 million dollars.
“Ecuador is part of the United Nations Security Council and as a member we promote the resolution of conflicts always respecting international law and the peaceful solution to these controversies,” said the chancellor.
In the midst of the controversy unleashed by the announcement about the delivery of war material, Russia banned the import of Ecuadorian bananas from five exporting companies, alleging the presence of an insect.
But Moscow backed down on that measure last Friday.
Russia is the second destination for Ecuadorian bananas, with 21% (almost 76 million boxes) of total sales abroad, behind the European Union with 28%, according to the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE). ).
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