Highlights: Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States. President Daniel Noboa on Thursday February 8, 2024 said he was considering exchanging Russian military equipment described as “obsolete” for $200 million in American weapons. Moscow's reaction, threatening Ecuadorian exports of bananas and flowers, quickly dissuaded Quito from pursuing this path. “ Ecuador will not send any war material to a country involved in an international armed conflict,” Foreign Minister Maria Gabriela Sommerfeld assured a parliamentary committee.

President Daniel Noboa on Thursday February 8, 2024 said he was considering exchanging Russian military equipment described as “obsolete” for $200 million in American weapons. Moscow's reaction...

Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States

President Daniel Noboa on Thursday February 8, 2024 said he was considering exchanging Russian military equipment described as “

obsolete

” for $200 million in American weapons. Moscow's reaction, threatening Ecuadorian exports of bananas and flowers, quickly dissuaded Quito from pursuing this path.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa on January 22, 2024 in Quito. © Ecuadorian Presidency via AFP

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Quito,

Eric Samson

We cannot anger Russia with impunity. Ecuador has just learned this the hard way. President Daniel Noboa's decision had everything to displease Moscow: re-exporting Russian weapons to the United States without its approval first, the possibility that this material would ultimately be handed over to Ukraine then and the fact of talking about it as “

scrap metal

” ultimately. In exchange for six helicopters, long-range rocket launchers and anti-aircraft defense systems, Ecuador

was

to receive American weapons to face the war that the state is waging against criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.

A series of diplomatic and political errors by Quito, according to political analyst and professor at the Simon-Bolivar Andean University, Gustavo Isch: “

The authorities lied by saying that the Russian equipment was only scrap metal while it is operational. This could be challenged by the state comptroller…and if this material goes to Ukraine, it could implicate Ecuador in an international conflict

.”

“

The government was very poorly advised
”

Very quickly, Moscow reacted by blocking the certification of five major Ecuadorian banana exporting companies and by also attacking flower exports, under phytosanitary pretexts. Russia is Ecuador's largest buyer of bananas, covering more than 20% of the country's exports, a fact that the government in Quito seemed to have forgotten. “

The government was very poorly advised

,” points out Gustavo Isch

. President Daniel Noboa also belongs to a family which has very large interests in banana exports. Russia reacted very quickly and found producers in Vietnam and India ready to sell the bananas that Moscow no longer wanted to buy in Ecuador

.”

A reality that Quito ended up recognizing on Monday February 19 by announcing that the re-export of Russian military equipment was no longer on the agenda. “

Ecuador will not send any war material to a country involved in an international armed conflict

,” Foreign Minister Maria Gabriela Sommerfeld assured a parliamentary committee.

Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States

Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States

“

The government was very poorly advised
”

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Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States

Ecuador refuses to deliver Soviet military equipment to the United States

“ The government was very poorly advised ”

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“

The government was very poorly advised
”