The Italian Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Maria Tripodi, accompanied by Ambassador Giovanni Davoli, attended two particularly fruitful bilateral meetings with Deputy Minister of Trade and Investment Homero Larrea and Deputy Minister of the Interior Fausto Iñiguez on the second day of her mission to Ecuador. The Undersecretary also signed an Anti-Drug Memorandum of Understanding establishing the terms of technical cooperation between the respective Interior Ministries in the fight against international drug trafficking. She also met with members of the Italian community and visited the Tumbaco plant of Ferrero, a global excellence of the Italian confectionery industry. “I am extremely satisfied with this two-day visit to Quito,” said the Undersecretary. “It has been an intense mission, organised as a follow-up to the President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa’s visit to Rome last May. I was able to see the depth of the relations that bind Italy to Ecuador and the way Italy is admired for its ability to transfer its know-how in various areas of mutual interest, first and foremost judicial and technological cooperation,” Tripodi continued. “Our Government is following the direction outlined by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani of making Latin America a priority in Italy’s foreign policy. It is in this spirit that we have intensified our political visits. We are working to strengthen cooperation and shorten the distance with a strategic continent where 80 million Italo-descendants live, too often considered by those who came before us as something exotic and distant, so much so that other actors were given a more prominent role”.
