After the promise to do so drew the ire of Moscow, which banned bananas from the Latin American country from being imported into Russia
Ecuador’s government announced Monday that it will no longer send Soviet-era military hardware to Ukraine via the United States, after the promise to do so drew the ire of Moscow, which banned the import of bananas from the Latin American country to Russia.
“Ecuador will not send war material to any country involved in an international armed conflict,” Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld assured a parliamentary committee.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa announced last month that a deal had been struck with Washington to swap Soviet-made military equipment for new American-made ones in the fight against organized crime gangs, mainly involved in drug trafficking.
The US then clarified that the weapons that would be exchanged with Ecuador would be transferred to Ukraine, to help its forces on the battlefields with Russia.
The deal sparked outrage in Moscow.
Russia, which is among the countries where the largest quantities of bananas produced in Ecuador are consumed, announced in response a ban on imports, citing the presence of an insect that destroys them.
A similar measure was imposed on flowers imported into Russia from Ecuador.
The Russian government subsequently revoked these measures.
Russia is the second main destination for bananas produced in Ecuador: 21% of the total amount exported ends up there. It is behind only the European Union (28%), according to the Association of Banana Exporters of Ecuador (AEBE).
Source :Skai
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