Foreign Ministers of Ecuador and Belize Meet

Ricardo Patino

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, on a working visit to Belize, called on Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington at his Belize City office this morning, where agreements were signed to formalize bilateral relations between Ecuador and Belize.  Before now, neither countries had any formal ties with the other.  So, the purpose of the mission to Belize is to see how a mutually beneficial agreement would allow for the strengthening of trade and economic relations, as well as tourism and human resource development.  According to Patino, Ecuador is working closely with other small nation states within Latin America and the Caribbean.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Wilfred 'Sedi' Elrington

“We will be signing two agreements with them.  One is basic technical cooperation agreement between the Government of Ecuador and Belize and the other is a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of bilateral consultations within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belize.  I have had discussions this morning with the foreign minister and with his crew and team, very, very stimulating and I’m very pleased now to offer him to you all so that he can tell you what his business here has been all about, how his trip so far has been going and in fact some of the exciting things they are doing in Ecuador and which they want to share with Belize.”

Ricardo Patino, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ecuador (Translated)

“We know about the great development that Belize has had over the past years and we want to deepen our relations with our brother countries such as Belize and we have met with the foreign minister many times in previous meetings. We are a very small South American country.  We are the second smallest country in Latin America, South America which is why we would like to develop relations with smaller countries within Latin America and the Caribbean because we are sure that this is the only way that we can all develop together.  We can work together in tourism, in trade and many other subjects that are important but we think that the most important thing that we can work together on is human talent.  Ecuador believes that investing in human talent is the only way to sustain the development of the country and keep it as it is.”