Ecuador To Restore
Diplomatic Relations
With Colombia
Ecuador will restore
diplomatic relations
with its northern
neighbor Colombia next
Monday, the day the
Organization of American
States (OAS) foreign
ministers meet,
Ecuador's Deputy
Minister of Foreign
Affairs Diego Stacey
said on Tuesday.
This was no simple
decision and the
relationship would only
be gradually normalized,
Stacey told reporters.
Ecuador severed
diplomatic relations
with Colombia on March 3
in response to the March
1 military strike by
Colombia on a
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia's
base inside Ecuador,
during which a rebel
leader and more than 20
others were killed.
Though Colombia
apologized to Ecuador
for the incursion at the
Rio Group summit on
Friday in Santo Domingo,
the two countries have
not resolved the
diplomatic crisis
completely.
Ivonne Baki, the
president of the Andean
Parliament, said that
full relations would not
be resumed because the
two nations' presidents
do not fully trust each
other.
She proposed creating a
committee of regional
police and military
figures to restrain
similar regional
conflicts.
Colombia's embassy in
Ecuador's capital Quito
remains closed, as does
Ecuador's embassy in
Bogota.
Jose Miguel Insulza,
secretary general of the
OAS, said on Monday that
Colombia's incursion
lacked justification,
after visiting the
attack site in
Angostura, a region in
the northern Ecuadorian
province of Sucumbios.
"We do not plan to
intervene in this, we
will just support in
case of need, but these
are bilateral
discussions," he said.
The OAS foreign
ministers will meet next
Monday in Washington
D.C., where the OAS is
headquartered.
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