721.23/1997
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)
Captain Alfaro, Minister of Ecuador, came in. He had just returned from New York, where he had gone to see Señor Urdaneta, Colombia’s Foreign Minister, who is an old friend of his. Captain Alfaro showed me the text of a cable he had just sent his Government [Page 580] reporting his conversation with Urdaneta and stating that the latter had said that Colombia would welcome Ecuador’s participation in the Rio discussions with Peru and that, so far as Colombia was concerned, it was simply a question of Ecuador deciding upon the right moment and circumstances in which to raise the question formally.
Captain Alfaro also showed me a cable received from his Government requesting that he advise us that the Ecuadoran Congress had voted a resolution calling upon the Congresses of all the countries of the world to recognize Ecuador’s right to participate in any territorial settlement in the Amazon Basin.