Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa confirmed to CNN Espanol that he rejected the previous decision of his government to send the U.S. old military equipment for use in Ukraine following a backlash from Russia.
The Ecuadorian government announced in January that it would send what it called "Ukrainian and Russian scrap metal" to the U.S. in exchange for modern equipment worth $200 million.
Washington said it planned to transfer the arms to Ukraine, followed by Moscow condemning Ecuador’s decision and limiting banana imports from the country.
Noboa told CNN Espanol in an interview that he had changed his mind about sending the Soviet-era equipment after finding out about its planned delivery to Ukraine.
"To our surprise, the United States publicly communicated that this was going to be carried out for the armed conflict in Ukraine, we do not want to be part of it," he said.
Abbey Fenbert
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, claimed on Feb. 2 that Ecuador's decision was a breach of contract between the two countries, adding it was made "under serious pressure from outside stakeholders."
A day later, Russia banned imports from five Ecuadorian banana companies, claiming that a disease had been discovered in previous shipments. Ex-Ecuadorian diplomat Carlos Estarellas reportedly said the ban might have been a retaliatory move to the arms deal.
Noboa emphasized in the CNN interview that Russia was the third most important trading partner for Ecuador, adding that they did not want to violate any international treaty.
Ecuador is one of the world's leading banana exporters. More than one-fifth of its exports in 2022 went to Russia.
Anastasiia Lapatina
(Updated: )
