Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso to visit Argentina next week

With the objective of expanding trade links with the region, Ecuador’s president Guillermo Lasso will begin an official visit to Argentina on Sunday, a trip which will keep him in Buenos Aires for 48 hours. 

Sources from the Casa Rosada specified to the Noticias Argentinas news agency that the Ecuadorean leader plans to arrive in the country next Sunday at 7pm local time.

The official agenda will begin next Monday, when Lasso arrives at the Casa Rosada around 10.30am for a meeting with President Alberto Fernández.

Diplomatic sources detailed to NA that the right-wing leader will arrive accompanied by Ministers Julio José Prado Lucio-Paredes (Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Commerce) and Vianna Maino (Telecommunications and Information Society). 

They then pointed out that the visit is part of the impulse that Foreign Ministry Santiago Cafiero, “has been giving to the Ministry in order to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries and the region, as was recently done with Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay.”

They added that “one of the objectives of the visit is to continue to move closer to Ecuador’s government on regional and hemispheric foreign policy issues.”

Moreover, they noted that a consular cooperation agreement will be signed within the framework of the visit, and there will be an exchange of views between the two presidents regarding the upcoming Summits of the Americas, which will occur in June in the United States. 

Fernández and Lasso will also address topics linked to Argentina’s pro-tempore presidency of CELAC (Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños) regional bloc.

The national government seeks to boost trade relations and telecommunication agreements with Ecuador, given that in 2021 exports to the country amounted to “more than US$504 million and imports to US$313 million,” resulting in a favourable balance for Argentina of more than US$190 million. 

— TIMES/NA