Ecuador’s president Lasso tells Mercosur summit that integration is essential for recovery

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, said Thursday (8) at the Summit of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) that integration “continues to be the path and indispensable condition to achieve economic and social recovery”.

Lasso participated in the LVIII Summit of Mercosur Heads of State held telematically. He said that one of the pillars of his government’s international policy is strengthening regional cooperation, said the Secretariat of Communication in a statement.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador

“We are convinced that Mercosur is a mechanism that solidly supports our common objectives, necessary for the economic and social development of all member and associate countries,” said the head of state.

He also stressed the importance of joining efforts among nations to overcome the crisis that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasized that it is essential to expedite the necessary funding for a prompt response and post-pandemic recovery.

He also pointed out that the initiatives to face this emergency must be jointly supported: “Integration continues to be the way forward and is an indispensable condition to achieve economic and social recovery,” insisted Lasso.

And he stressed that, from his Administration, in addition to maintaining support for regional actions aimed at this end, “Ecuador wants to promote a recovery anchored in sustainability and inclusion, with a renewed emphasis on the 2030 Agenda, which has a gender perspective and substantive support for MSMEs, the fundamental basis of regional trade”.

For this reason, he emphasized the 9/100 Vaccination Plan, whose objective is to vaccinate nine million people in the first 100 days of his government, which began on May 24.

In this regard, he added that the Government had deployed the necessary steps to have the required amount of doses.

“We will continue working tirelessly on this fundamental objective to save lives and support economic recovery (…) For Ecuador, it is essential to achieve universal, equitable, and timely access to immunization against covid-19, and to recognize its vaccine as a global public good,” he said.

And he emphasized the need to continue joining efforts to promote access to vaccines under favorable conditions and avoid any mechanism that could limit exports of these and other medical supplies to developing countries.

The President also congratulated Argentina for being the first country in Latin America to produce locally batches of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and Brazil for the progress made at the Butantan Institute for the production of its own vaccine.

He also thanked the countries whose solidarity has helped overcome the crisis caused by the shortage of vaccines, medicines, and medical devices for certain catastrophic diseases.

The Southern Common Market is a regional integration body designed to generate trade and investment opportunities.

Ecuador formalized its entry in 2004 as an Associated State, which means that it is authorized to participate in meetings of its bodies that deal with matters of interest. It participates with voice, but not vote; the Presidency indicated in a press release.