Ecuador criticizes comments by U.S. ambassador

Ecuador Vice President Glas

Ecuador Vice President Jorge Glas has accused U.S. Ambassador Adam Namm of interfering in the country’s internal affairs, claiming that the ambassador violated an international convention that regulates diplomatic relations between nations.

“Ecuador is a sovereign country and will not accept such interference. We ask that the U.S. ambassador respect the Vienna convention relating to diplomatic relations,” Glas said on Friday. “We are not interested in the amassador’s opinions and consider them a violation.”

Glas’s comments followed a presentation by Namm last week to a Guayaquil business group in which he criticized Ecuador’s relationship with such countries as Belarus and Iran as well as its grant of asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

U.S. Ambassador Adam Namm

“The U.S. is Ecuador’s largest trading partner and it sent more than $ 11 billion in products to the United States in 2012. The U.S. sent more than $6 billion in products to Ecuador in return,” Namm said. “It is important the Ecuador maintain good relations with the U.S. to maintain a healthy trade environment.”

Commenting on Ecuador’s plan to increase trade with China, Namm said that the country exports very little to China. “It is important that Ecuador recognize the geographical proximity to the U.S.,” he said. “As they say in the real estate business, you have to focus on location, location, location.”