Quito: It is a World Heritage site whose exclusive helped Charles Darwin to design his theory of evolution.
The waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago about 900 kilometers (560 miles) off Ecuador’s Pacific coast, have the last point of friction between the world’s two superpowers.
The volcanic islands, which belong to Ecuador, are known for their abundance of local species, adding the huge Galapagos tortoise and organizing bird species known as Darwin finches. The waters are also abundant in marine life.
Widespread confidence in Ecuador is that the Chinese fleet of some 260 ships was drawn to what is a rich habitat for sharks, used to make shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in China. In 2017, the Ecuadorian army captured a ship from a similar fleet that had strayed into the waters of the Galapagos and discovered more than 6,000 frozen sharks on board.
The basically Chinese fishing fleet — some with Liberian and Panamanian flags — was detected through the Ecuadorian army last month in foreign waters between the Galapagos and the mainland. The domain is legally open to foreign fishing, however, the emergence of Chinese vessels in the domain for more than 3 years has provoked protests in Ecuador.
Pompeo intervened in the dispute over Ecuador this weekend.
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China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it had agreed on a moratorium on deep-sea fishing west of the Galapagos Protection Zone from September to November to help fishing resources.
The United States “is in a position to criticize other countries in maritime affairs,” foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing because it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets rules for the control of marine resources.
U.S.-China relations are strained by industry disputes, the rise of Chinese-generation corporations, and Hong Kong’s recent national security law. Countries also disagree on China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, as well as in Taiwan.
Darwin’s observations of the best adaptation of Galapago species to their environment shaped the basis of their theory of evolution through the selection of herbs, which he laid out in The Origin of Species, published in 1859.
A young female whale shark named Esperanza, or Hope, labeled last year with a GPS transmitter, has disappeared near the Chinese fleet, representing a risk symbol for rare marine wildlife. To protest the effect of the fleet, Galapagos islanders put on plastic bottles with Chinese labels that came to shore.
Since 2018, President Lenin Moreno has maintained Ecuador’s ties with the United States and turned his back on the ex-honors of Cuba and Venezuela. It has allowed U.S. anti-narcotics surveillance aircraft to rest in the Galapagos, and last year Ecuador participated in U.S.-led naval exercises.
Despite its warmer relations with the United States, Ecuador cannot alienate China, which owes $5.3 billion and is one of its largest export markets.
China is Ecuador’s largest shrimp customer, the country’s second largest export, and Quito seeks to lift restrictions after Covid-19 lines were discovered on some packaging. Ecuador is also ready to get $2.4 billion in new loans from China, according to the Ministry of Finance. – Bloomberg
Read also: US takes steps to tighten rules on Chinese company lists to prevent fraud
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