INTERVIEW Ecuadorian FM underlines multi-track cooperation against pandemic

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Luis Gallegos Chiriboga speaks with The Korea Times at Conrad Seoul hotel in Seoul, Nov. 24, during his first official Korea trip after taking office in July. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Yi Whan-woo

• Published Dec 14, 2020 8:54 AM KST
• Updated Dec 14, 2020 4:47 PM KST

Gallegos make 1st Korea trip as top Ecuadorian diplomat

By Yi Whan-woo

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Luis Gallegos Chiriboga finds the expansion of bilateral cooperation on regional and international levels is becoming more important, as the COVID-19 pandemic persists and countries are increasingly struggling with common challenges.

This is why Minister Gallegos, after taking office in July, recently made his first official visit to Korea to attend the 2020 Korea-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Future Cooperation Forum.

Also the first LAC foreign minister to come to Seoul since the start of the pandemic, Gallegos met Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo and businesspeople on the bilateral sides.

On regional level cooperation, the three ministers joined the forum from Nov. 23 to 24 at the Conrad Seoul hotel in Seoul, along with diplomats, health officials and doctors from Korea and the LAC countries.

Home of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), all affiliated with the United Nations, Korea was where Gallegos met IVI Director Jerome Kim, GCF Deputy General Director Javier Manzanares and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who serves as the president of GGGI.

Gallegos discussed various topics during his stay, including balancing the economy and quarantine measures, support for key industries hit by the pandemic, tackling unemployment and poverty, making vaccines affordable worldwide at a reasonable price, social distancing and reliance on information and communications technology (ICT) and climate change.

“I categorize the definition of the situation we are in as an unprecedented world crisis that has affected every country in the world,” he told The Korea Times during an interview at the hotel in Seoul, Nov. 24. “The challenge is so extraordinary to be handled by a country alone or a group of countries. It has to be met by all over the world and that multilateral solution to this problem is extremely important.”

He underlined the global challenges intensified by the coronavirus are “not only health issues but also foreign policy objectives,” saying “The crisis should be solved through solidarity and cooperation of the world.”

During his one-on-one talks with Kang, Gallegos thanked Korea for providing its disease control expertise and also donating masks, both from public and private sectors.

The latest donation was 416,000 masks from the foreign ministry.

“We are very thankful to the solidarity and generosity of the Korean people,” Gallegos said.

The ministers exchanged ideas on how to build on the May 2019 trip of then-Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon to Ecuador. Lee is the highest-level Korean official to visit the country so far.

With Ecuador seeking to revive the tourism and air transportation sectors, Gallegos and Kang touched on the Korea Airport Corp.'s (KAC) rights to operate an airport in the Ecuadorian city of Manta.

The state-run airport operator has landed a $180 million deal with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Transport and Public Works to run the Manta airport until 2050.

The business representatives Gallegos met included representatives from the KAC, Korea International Trade Association, Hyundai Motor Group and COVID-19 test kit manufacturer Seegene.

“I had a very intense agenda prepared by the very able embassy (of Ecuador in Korea) to foster investment and amplify our relations,” he said, adding he signed five memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on economic cooperation.

The 2020 Korea-Latin America and the Caribbean Future Cooperation Forum took place both online and offline, with themes of regional and international partnership in the current climate as well as post-pandemic economic recovery.

In the forum, Gallegos noted 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity and electronic governance are among the key areas of future cooperation.

“We are extremely interested in progressing toward modern technology like 5G and are very much willing to talk to those who have this technology,” he said.

He assessed the advance in technology on one hand is “extraordinary to the benefit of all,” with clean air- and zero emission-related technologies being examples, but can cause a digital divide and other risks on the other hand.

“Therefore it is very important to talk about those risks through exchange and cooperation,” he said.

Regarding economic recovery, the foreign minister said it will take “a number of years” to recuperate with world supply chains being hit and unemployment increasing.

He stressed the need for the world to get together “to return to a situation where we have more jobs for the future generations.”

In his meeting with IVI Director Kim, Gallegos signed an MOU to explore areas of collaboration in global health research and development.

The foreign minister viewed vaccinating all 7.8 billion people in the world against COVID-19 critical, saying, “You otherwise will continue to have this disease.”

In relation to Ecuador's cooperation with GCF, Ecuador in 2019 became the second country to receive financial resources from the fund for having successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.

The country went from annual net deforestation of 92,742 hectares in the 1990-2000 period to 47,497 hectares in the 2008-2014 period.

Gallegos thanked former U.N. chief Ban for his commitment to sustainable development, such as by opening the GCF in Korea in 2014 while he was in office.

A career diplomat, Gallegos joined the foreign ministry in 1966.

He was the permanent representative of Ecuador to the U.N. before being appointed as the foreign minister.