The Diplomat in Spain

Lenín Moreno with King Felipe VI./ Photo: Casa de SM el Rey

The Diplomat. 27/07/2018

The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, signed yesterday with the president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, an agreement on police cooperation for security and fight against transnational organized crime.

The Agreement, which regulates aspects such as the fight against organized crime, with specific reference to terrorism, and collaboration in the operative-investigative activity of the different types of crime, was signed yesterday at the Moncloa Palace for the second visit official to Spain of the Ecuadorian president.

Moreno was also received yesterday at the Palacio de la Zarzuela in Madrid by Felipe VI. The president was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador, José Valencia Amores; the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Fernando Martín Valenzuela Marzo, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador in Spain, Cristóbal Fernando Roldán. For his part, the monarch was accompanied by the ambassador of Spain in Ecuador, Carlos Alfonso Abella and Arístegui.

At present, as Moncloa recalled, Spain is helping Ecuador in its fight against narco-terrorism, which has emerged on its border with Colombia since the beginning of the year. The agreement, authorized on July 20 by the Council of Ministers, establishes the conditions for proceeding to the exchange of information between the two countries and provides that, in case of need, Spain and Ecuador may establish a Joint Commission to develop and evaluate the police cooperation.

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The two presidents commit to promote the new Country Association Framework 2019-2022

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During the meeting yesterday, the two presidents also adopted a Declaration on cooperation with which it is intended to give a boost to the negotiation process of the new Country Association Framework 2019-2022 (MAP).

Lenín Moreno also held a meeting with former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who presided over the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Ecuador and Spanish business groups.

Spain and Ecuador signed a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between Spain and Ecuador during the first official visit of Moreno to Spain, at the end of 2017, still during the presidency of Mariano Rajoy.