Patiño: “We Have More Than 190 Countries with Which We will keep Conversations”

Yesterday afternoon, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño said that Ecuador will not beg for the resumption of bilateral talks with the United States, a decision taken by the state department of that country. However, he acknowledged that relations with that country are national interest.

“If a country decides to suspend bilateral talks with Ecuador, we have 190 countries in which we will continue talking,” said Patiño to the media. “(…) they have contact with us because they are interested in a relationship with Ecuador, not because they are doing us favors, but because the deal is mutual benefit,” he affirmed.

Charles Luoma-Overstreet, spokesman for Latin America, said that “the State Department (USA) has indefinitely suspended an important forum for discussions between the two governments established in 2008.”

Yesterday, according to official Ecuadorian sources, the U.S. government suspended the talks as a direct result of the expulsion of its ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges, who later was classed by Ecuadorian government as an “Unwelcome Person.”

Source: Daily Expreso