President Lasso and 7 delegates will travel to Colombia to participate in the Summit of the Pacific Alliance

Within the framework of the XVI Summit of Presidents of the Pacific Alliance that began this Monday with the meeting of the Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the four member countries, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru; the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, will travel to Colombia, along with a delegation of 7 people.

The president seeks to strengthen geopolitical relations with the members of the Alliance, to which Ecuador aspires to become an official and active member. However, and despite constant negotiations, the country has not managed to sign a free trade agreement with Mexico, a key step for Ecuador’s admission to the trade alliance.

The discrepancies, according to reports, would be found around vital products for the Ecuadorian economy such as shrimp and bananas, so the negotiations to find an agreement that benefits the two countries are still underway.

In the event, the transition of the pro tempore presidency from Colombia to Mexico will also take place and the alliance will sign the free trade agreement with Singapore, thus becoming the first associated state of the Pacific alliance that seeks as its main objective the strengthening of the Creative Economy, for which it is expected that the Business Council of the Alliance will meet.

The delegation that accompanies the president of the republic is made up of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juan Carlos Holguín; the Minister of Foreign Trade, Julio José Prado; the Secretary General for Communication of the Presidency; an Advisor; the Undersecretary of Protocol; the President’s Aide-de-camp and the President’s Chief of Security and, as published in decree 332, all expenses and per diem related to the trip will be covered by the Ecuadorian State, through the respective entities to which the members of the the delegation.

The president is expected to arrive first in the city of Bahía Málaga this Wednesday, January 26, 2022 in order to participate in the summit of the Pan-American alliance, while on Thursday the 27th he will travel to the city of Cartagena de Indias to participate in the III Summit of Presidents of PROSUR, a regional organization that was formed in 2019 to replace the Unasur bloc, which was created by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.