GUILLERMO LASSO TRAVELLS TO CHINA

 GUILLERMO LASSO'S TRIP TO CHINA CONFIRMED

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso will make an official visit to China in February, coinciding with the Winter Olympic Games, in an attempt to renegotiate the more than US$5 billion debt with that country and strengthen bilateral relations.

"We have an official visit with a scheduled agenda and whose work began a few weeks ago," said the minister, who took office last Monday.

In that visit will be addressed "seven points" and one of them is the debt of "just over 5,000 million dollars" that Ecuador still has with the Asian giant.

"This year we have a large debt payment with China and it is a debt that, we all know, was negotiated under conditions not favorable to our country", he stressed when asked by Efe, but without offering more details of the process "out of respect for the confidentiality of the negotiations".

But he insisted that "they are progressing well" and revealed that "there are several mechanisms of conversations about possible solutions".

Ecuador's debt with China stems from loans contracted during the different governments of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), which many have criticized for being at too high interest rates and, in some cases, materialized with oil supply commitments.

Holguín, whose country is also trying to get much closer to the U.S. since Lasso came to power last May, reaffirmed that Ecuadorian diplomacy will be guided by pragmatic principles because "Ecuador has to think about its interests and those of its citizens."

"Ecuador has been very grateful to China for its support during the health crisis. More than 50% of our citizens have been vaccinated with Sinovac and Cansino, and that is also a sign of the good moment that relations with China are going through," he stressed.

And he stressed that Lasso and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, have "a relationship of great height, of great transparency and mutual collaboration".