In the context of IX Summit of the Americaswhich takes place in Los Angeles (United States), the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, met his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque, after the disagreement that arose due to the announcements concerning the sale of the presidential plane to the Air Force from the neighboring country.

“Very happy to meet the President of Colombia, Iván Duque. We discussed cooperation between nations to solve security problems, border care, strengthening the health system and the production of medicines,” reported Lasso on his Twitter account on June 9.

This meeting takes place after dead end this was generated by the revelation made by Guillermo Lasso about the sale of the Legacy EMB135BJ 2008 FAE-051 presidential aircraft to the Colombian Air Force, which was denied by Duque in his country’s media.

In mid-May, Lasso announced on his weekly talk show, Let’s meet the citizensthat the sale of the presidential plane had been made to the Colombian Air Force for a value of 8 million dollars, which would be used to re-engine another ship of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE).

However, the president had to rectify the information, because Duque in statements to Colombian journalists clarified: “No negotiations have been finalized, no planes have been paid for and no planes will be purchased during my government.”

This happened in a context where Colombia is in the middle of an electoral process to elect the next President of the Republic who will succeed Duque.

For this reason, Lasso, in an interview with the News Network NTN24, He regretted that his statements caused Duque any trouble. “I want to be careful, because the truth is that I felt a lot that without any bad intention, it caused a problem for President Duque and his government, or for politics in Colombia. It’s not something that’s in my head to cause an incident, but the negotiation is in progress (…); you can find the next government and there are, let’s say, signed agreements and commitments, because they were really imminent,” he said.

This Thursday, the Ecuadorian president also held a bilateral meeting with the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, during which he would have discussed “the integration of the countries of South America”. “It makes me very happy that there is a political will to work for unity and integration,” he posted on Twitter.

Likewise, with the President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, in which they discussed starting “officially our negotiation of an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) that will further unite our peoples”.

As part of the Summit, the presidents of nine countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, including Ecuador, signed a joint commitment to protect the oceans for a “fight for survival”.

The document was signed by the presidents of Chile, Gabriel Boric; from Colombia, Ivan Duque; from Peru, José Pedro Castillo; from Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; from Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; and from Panama, Laurentino Cortizo; as well as by the heads of Canadian diplomacy, Mélanie Joly; from Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard; and US climate chief John Kerry. (YO)