QUITO, Ecuador: Ecuador’s foreign minister has said that his country did not plan to send Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine after the president’s vow to do so caused a spat with Russia over exports of banana and flower.
Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld told a congressional committee on Monday that Ecuador will not send any war material to a country that is involved in an international armed conflict.
President Daniel Noboa said last month that Ecuador had agreed to exchange Russian military equipment that had become “scrap metal” for the new US weapons worth around $200 million.
Ecuador was planning to send six Russian military helicopters, long-range rocket launchers and air defence systems to the United States then to be sent to Ukraine.
In return, Ecuador would get sophisticated weapons to fight powerful drug trafficking gangs.
Moscow criticized the “reckless” decision and banned the import of some bananas and flowers from Ecuadoran, citing the detection of pests.
Trade Minister of Ecuador, Sonsoles Garcia, on Friday, took to X to say that the Russian embargo on five banana exporting companies had been lifted.
The country is the global biggest banana exporter and one of the top exporters of flowers, mainly roses.
According to Russian media, 90 percent of the bananas imported by Russia come from Ecuador.