Upon his arrival at the Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, the President made statements to the press and summarized as “productive” his trip through the North American territory, where he attended the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Reflecting on his stay in the city of New York, the President recalled the statements he made to the multilateral organization on the urgency of working together to combat transnational organized crime in order to stop violence and crime.
In connection with his stay in the northern capital, Lasso highlighted his meetings with the President of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, as well as with Democratic and Republican members of Congress to promote the so-called IDEA Act.
Lasso said the regulations aim to open trade to nearly 850 Ecuadorian products that would enter the United States without tariffs.
The Ecuadorian leader also spoke with President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as well as lower-level officials and businesspeople.
The head of state received criticism on social networks, as several Internet users considered that it was not necessary for the president to travel for such a meeting, and also pointed out that there were no concrete results so far from his stay in Washington.
This was Lasso’s 27th foreign trip in 28 months of his reign, meaning he left the country almost once a month.
For former Vice Chancellor Fernando Yépez, this state tourism is “ridiculous, expensive, abusive and shameful” and he considers the current foreign policy of the Ecuadorian government to be “unpredictable, poorly planned, abusive, without clear objectives and inappropriate”.
jha/avr