(11:28 am) Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa arrived in the country




Caracas .- The President of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, arrived in the morning this Friday at the airport Carlos Manuel Piar the city of Puerto Ordaz, as part of the official visit undertaken by the trustee to the national territory.

At the airport he was received by Minister of People's Power for Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Maduro, for the Basic Industries and Mining, Rodolfo Sanz, the governor of Bolivar state, Francisco Rangel Gomez of Ecuador and ambassador in Venezuela, Rene Vargas Pazos, outlined the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN).

Correa's visit aims to further strengthen bilateral relations, especially in energy.

For this Friday is expected that the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez and his Ecuadorian counterpart signed an agreement for a study on the possibility of jointly exploit the area of Ayacucho, in the Orinoco.

Both leaders made a tour of the Orinoco Oil Belt, specifically Ayacucho Block 5, which hoped to extract some 150 thousand barrels per day to feed the refinery Manta.

Igual conducted a tour of the Iron and Steel Alfredo Maneiro (former Sidor), recently nationalized by the National Government.

Among the agreements signed by both nations stressed the signing of minutes of work to increase cooperation in the steel area that is designed to promote strategic alliances, to support the development of Ecuadorian Iron and Steel Industries, in fairness to the parties.

There are also cooperation agreements like the Agreement on Respect of Sovereignty and Food Security, which aims to establish the institutional framework for cooperation with regard to ensuring food security and sovereignty of both countries.