US embassy cable - 05QUITO2574

UNCLAS QUITO 002574 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, CO, PGOV, EC 
SUBJECT: MFA PLANS FOREIGN POLICY DIALOGUE 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: FM Carrion has announced his intention to 
develop a foreign policy strategy for 2005-2020.  He intends 
to build support for the strategy through a series of topical 
seminars over the coming year.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) PolChief and PolOff met on November 8 with 
Ambassador Javier Ponce, President of the Ecuadorian 
Diplomatic Association, to discuss on Carrion's foreign 
policy strategy for 2005-2020.  Ponce, a career diplomat, 
expressed concern over damage done to Ecuador's foreign 
policy under the Gutierrez government, and confirmed that 
Carrion had asked him to develop a document charting 
Ecuadorian foreign policy through 2020.  Ponce said that he 
and FM Carrion are friends, having served under him in 
Madrid.  Ponce said he and MOD Oswaldo Jarrin worked together 
at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), 
and that the MFA's document would be coordinated closely with 
Jarrin's announced white paper on security issues. 
 
3.  (SBU) Ponce's earlier efforts, as head of the MFA's AFSA 
equivalent, included a project to encourage greater analysis 
in the MFA.  He did so by incorporating in the MFA's officer 
evaluation process, a requirement for a paper foreign policy 
topics, suggesting specific attention to U.S.-Ecuador 
Relations, National Security, and Colombia-Ecuador Relations. 
 The program was a great success, according to Ponce, with 30 
of the first 100 papers submitted to academic journals in 
Spain and Ecuador. 
 
4.  (SBU) Ponce is now planning to inform the 2020 strategy 
drafting process, which will culminate in a draft strategic 
document, by convoking a series of seminars on topics along 
similar lines, and has requested USG assistance in securing 
U.S. experts on Latin America to participate in the seminar 
on U.S.-Ecuador relations in early January.  The seminars 
will include a variety of sectors and perspectives, 
encouraging open dialogue between them. 
 
5.  (SBU) Comment: Ponce told us that the FM's "ulterior 
motive" for this series of seminars is to encourage social 
and political dialogue on foreign policy issues, and build 
consensual support for a long-term vision of Ecuador's 
external goals.  We find the effort refreshing in the current 
difficult political situation, and will consider ways to 
support it. 
JEWELL