Georgetown: The Ecuadorian Government will soon be establishing an Ecuadorian Embassy in Guyana, according to Ecuadorian non-resident Ambassador to Guyana, Dr Rafael Quintero Lopez.
“The decision has [been] taken that we will establish an embassy right here in your country in the capital of Guyana,” he said. This move can be seen as another defining moment in strengthening Guyana’s relations with its South American neighbours.
Ambassador Quintero Lopez, who is also the Ecuadorian Ambassador to Venezuela, explained that his Government aims to improve on the diplomatic relationship the two countries have developed over the past 41 years.
“We have diplomatic relations with Guyana for more than 40 years but we never had an embassy, a physical embassy here,” he lamented.
The Ambassador revealed that the idea is to establish an embassy within the coming months and to dispatch a Charge d’Affaires during the first month of the embassy’s establishment in Guyana.
“This person will come and arrange everything and it prepares the establishment of the embassy with an Ambassador resident in Georgetown,” he said.
The Ambassador explained that the Charge d’Affaires will be dispatched to Guyana within the coming months and will remain until the Government of Guyana grants its agreement to Ecuador’s chosen Ambassador to take up residence in Guyana.
In the meanwhile, Quintero Lopez will remain as the non-resident Ecuadorian Ambassador to Guyana.
The Ambassador explained that, at this moment, he is unable to pronounce on which specific areas the countries would focus on developing and strengthening.
“This is a matter of discussion and agreements between the two parties because the relations that we always have in our foreign policy are a relation of ‘win-win’ to be complementary,” he explained.
He further disclosed that focus could be directed towards environmental protection, socioeconomic policies, science and technology, and the area of trade and commerce which can definitely see both nations learning and benefiting from each other in various ways.
Ambassador Quintero Lopez explained that Ecuador works on several infrastructural projects in other Caribbean countries and the same could be done in Guyana. However, he pointed out that everything needs to be discussed before it could be pronounced upon.
“This is a subject of discussion… I cannot announce which will be the areas of that cooperation if we haven’t discussed,” he stated.
Nonetheless, he noted that stronger bilateral cooperation can be beneficial to both nations regardless of which area.
“Having an Ambassador, woman or man here in Georgetown, will facilitate the linkages in our economy with our societies, with our cultures which are all complementary,” he noted.
Currently, Guyana and Ecuador share a relationship where Ecuadorians can travel to Guyana without a Visa and vice versa.
Meanwhile, other South American countries that already established their presence in Guyana are Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Venezuela.
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