AGREEMENT WITH ECUADOR ON STATUS OF FORCES FOR

UNCLAS QUITO 000048 SIPDIS SIPDIS L/PM (CDR TOM HEROLD),WHA/AND (SIGRID EMRICH),DOD/OSD (LTC DAN MCDONALD),DOD/OSD/WHA (WALTER EARLE) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIA MARR MOPS PM PREL EC SUBJECT: AGREEMENT WITH ECUADOR ON STATUS OF FORCES FOR EXERCISES IN ECUADOR REF: SECSTATE 3118 ¶1. (SBU) On January 16, PolChief and MilGroup Commander delivered proposed text of diplomatic note and talking points from Reftel in a meeting with MFA Under Secretary of Sovereignty Affairs Jaime Barberis, MFA Legal Advisor Gonzalo Salvador, and MOD Chief of Ministerial Cabinet COL Galo Cruz. The initial Ecuadorian response was positive. The GOE is reviewing the text further, and promised to give us a quick response. COL Cruz stated that he would like to see the process completed before the Defense Minister's trip to the United States on January 23. ¶2. (SBU) On January 17, Embassy Quito updated the text of the proposed diplomatic note per the January 17 e-mail from WHA/AND Janine Keil, to reinsert an inadvertently omitted sentence in Article XIII. Text of Article XIII now reads as follows: "Vehicles, vessels, and aircraft operated by the United States armed forces shall not be subject to the payment of landing or port fees, pilotage, navigation or over flight charges, or tolls or other use charges, including light and harbor dues, while in Ecuador. Aircraft operated by or for the United States armed forces shall observe local air traffic control regulations while in Ecuador. Vessels owned or operated by the United States armed forces shall not be subject to compulsory pilotage at Ecuadorian ports." JEWELL