José Valencia, diplomat with 36 years of experience, assumes the Chancellery

Ecuadornews:

Ambassador José Valencia, with 36 years of diplomatic experience, today assumed his functions as the new head of the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, after his previous holder, María Fernanda Espinosa, was elected as the next president of the UN General Assembly.

The new Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility was invested today by executive decree, according to an official statement from the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador.

A career diplomat with nearly four decades of experience in the foreign service, Valencia holds a PhD in Law from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.

He also has fourth-level studies at Harvard and Columbia University, in Political Science and Public Administration, respectively.

Before assuming his new functions, Valencia was the permanent representative of the Andean country before the Organization of American States (OAS), in New York.

During his professional career, he was deputy foreign minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Director of Multilateral Policy and Human Rights, among other positions.

He was also ambassador of Ecuador in South Africa and official of the permanent mission in Geneva, as well as coordinator for the Presidency and Pro Tempore Secretariat of the Andean Community.

His predecessor in office, Espinosa, offered an accountability report on Monday from May 2017 to May 2018, and at the end he advanced some of the pending issues on the agenda for his successor.

“The priority are issues of the northern border, our relationship with Colombia, the 20 years of peace with Peru, there are several celebrations and fulfillment of works,” said Espinosa.

He also indicated that “several political consultations remain on the table”, in addition to the foreign travel agenda of the president, Lenin Moreno, and the visits of leaders to the country, as well as Ecuador’s participation in the next UN General Assembly, among other issues.

Valencia is the second person in charge of the Ecuadorian diplomacy under the presidency of Moreno. (I)

Source: https://www.larepublica.ec/blog/politica/2018/06/12/asume-funciones-el-nuevo-canciller-de-ecuador/