And Lada: Ecuador intends to buy Russian cars
Representatives of AVTOVAZ will visit Ecuador in March this year and discuss the resumption of sales of Russian cars in the Latin American country. This was stated to Izvestia by Ambassador Juan Fernando Holguin Flores. Despite the sanctions, difficulties with payments and logistics, Moscow remains an important trading partner of Quito. Russia is one of the main buyers of Ecuadorian bananas, while the country is also interested in increasing cocoa exports. Negotiations between Moscow and Washington can also have a positive impact on trade cooperation between the countries, given the pro-American vector of Quito's foreign policy. The prospects of the Russian Federation in the Latin American market against the background of the ambiguous policy of the Trump administration are described in the exclusive Izvestia article.
Ecuador is ready to discuss purchases of AvtoVAZ cars
In March, several representatives of the Russian company AvtoVAZ will visit Ecuador to discuss the resumption of sales of Lada cars. This was reported to Izvestia by Ambassador Juan Fernando Holguin Flores.
— A group of AvtoVAZ representatives will arrive in Ecuador in March to explore the possibility of returning Lada cars to the Ecuadorian market, as it was a few years ago, the diplomat said.
Izvestia also sent a request to AvtoVAZ.
In the late 1990s, AvtoVAZ managed to conclude an agreement with a local company to organize assembly production of two models in Ecuador — the VAZ-2106 and the VAZ-21214 Niva. In a Latin American country, the car was then assigned the name Lada Riva. The company operated for several years, but later closed. In 2012, AvtoVAZ announced plans to supply Lada models to three South American countries at once - Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Despite the difficulties with logistics and payments due to the sanctions, Russia remains an important trading partner for Ecuador, Juan Fernando Holguin Flores emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia.
— Russia is an important trading partner for us — we export bananas, flowers, and cocoa to this country. Our exports reach $1 billion. We are one of the main exporters of flowers in the Russian Federation. Even under the conditions of sanctions, Ecuador has never stopped trade cooperation with Russia," he noted.
According to the diplomat, Quito does not plan to export new goods to Russia yet, but hopes to increase the volume of supplies already established. If it is practically impossible to do this in the case of banana exports, which already average about a million tons annually, then there is still a huge potential in the case of cocoa. From January to July last year, Ecuador exported more than 200 thousand tons of cocoa to various countries, which in terms of dollars amounts to about $1.5 billion, which is 176% more than in 2023. As for Russia, Ecuador, although one of the top three cocoa exporters, accounts for only 13.7%. Russia imports most of its cocoa from Côte d'Ivoire - about 60%.
There are good prospects in the flower sector. Launching direct flights between Moscow and Quito would have a positive impact on the supply of roses to the Russian Federation.
— We hope that we will be able to establish direct flights. This would bring us great benefits in terms of exporting roses to Russia. But this is a long and complicated process," the diplomat noted.
Economic cooperation policy between Russia and Ecuador
However, not everything is smooth in the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. At the end of January last year, a scandal broke out around Ecuadorian bananas, when President Daniel Noboa decided to transfer Soviet-style weapons to the United States. In exchange, Quito was to receive $200 million worth of modern American weapons. At that time, the country needed it to combat the escalating crime.
In response, Moscow ordered restrictions on the import of Ecuadorian bananas to Russia. In addition, in early February, the Rosselkhoznadzor appealed to the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador, Franklin Danilo Palacios Marquez, with a request to suspend the certification of bananas from five of the 20 exporters. According to the Russian ministry, they identified a omnivorous humpback fly, a dangerous pest that infects food.
The restrictions were later lifted, but nevertheless, in 2024, the total volume of bananas exported was the lowest since 2012, totaling 1.1 million tons in 10 months.
In general, with the coming to power of Daniel Noboa at the end of 2023, relations between Russia and Ecuador have become more tense. The president sought to get closer to the United States than to Russia, China and the countries of the region with center-left governments.
It is worth noting that Noboa was elected for only one and a half years in order to complete the presidential term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, who faced impeachment due to embezzlement of the state budget. Now the Ecuadorian leader has a chance to be re-elected again, but for a full four years. Noboa has already qualified for the second round of the presidential election, and voting will take place on April 13.
Prospects for trade between Russia and Latin America after Trump's return
With the start of the Russian-American dialogue, Ecuador's attitude towards Russia may change, given Quito's current pro-American course. This is likely to have a positive impact on trade and economic ties. A similar scenario may occur in the context of other Latin American countries close to Washington. So, some of them are now changing their position on the Ukrainian crisis — this became especially noticeable at the UN vote on February 24. Then, together with the United States, Argentina, for the first time since 2022, did not support anti-Russian resolutions at the General Assembly. Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras also abstained from voting.
Many Latin American governments are subject to decisions USA, Egor Lidovskaya, director of the Hugo Chavez Latin American Institute, tells Izvestia. Nevertheless, only a part of them is connected specifically with the Republican Party and Trump — Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador are among them, and therefore these countries are likely to build their foreign policy following the example of the United States.
At the same time, the prospects for Russia in Latin America are also opening up the difficult relations of some countries in the region with the new US administration. The Republican's harsh migration policy has already caused outrage in Colombia and Mexico. After returning to the White House, Trump threatened to impose duties of 25% on Mexican goods.
By the way, despite logistical difficulties and Western sanctions, Russia and Mexico are showing mutual interest in cooperation, the Mexican Embassy in Moscow confirmed to Izvestia. Two major trade missions of Russian businessmen to Mexico are already planned for 2025.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
