Ecuador's president: Cooperation with Belarus goes beyond trade

Ecuador President Rafael Correa said here Thursday his country was determined to make the most of cooperation potential with Belarus and this would go beyond simple trade. Ecuador and Belarus had determined four to five areas of cooperation on which the two countries would actively work, Correa said following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. "Belarus and Ecuador should become closer to each other. Latin America should know that Belarus helped to overcome fascism and that the country did a lot to increase the well-being of the Belarusian people," he said. Lukashenko said Belarus and Ecuador successfully collaborated in oil exploration and production and that success should be expanded and extended to other fields. The two heads of state agreed to promote cooperation in power-related engineering, construct power grids in Ecuador, establish joint production of machinery and intensify ties in the science and defense sectors. Lukashenko said Belarus and Ecuador were similar in many ways. They had no disagreements, which was a good precondition for long-lasting cooperation. This is the first visit by a president of Ecuador to Belarus in 20 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.