Ecuador has hit back at the UK government over who is to blame for the deadlock in the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The 44-year-old Australian has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London for more than three years to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault allegations.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo explained in detail Gibraltar’s views on self-determination during a ‘cordial’ meeting with Ecuadorian diplomat Xavier Lasso Mendoza, the Chairman of the United Nations Decolonization Committee of 24, in New York on Tuesday, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo is in New York for a meeting with the Chairman of the UN’s Decolonization Committee of 24, ambassador Xavier Lasso Mendoza. The meeting arose from the Chief Minister’s intervention before the C24 last month, during which the Ecuadorian diplomat confirmed he had met with a Spanish government minister to discuss Gibraltar, according or a report from the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The president of the UN Decolonization Special Committee (C24), Xavier Lasso Mendoza argued that the Falklands/Malvinas issue is a territorial integrity and sovereignty dispute between two countries, and since there is no subjugated people in the Islands, if a visiting mission is to be sent, it would have to be to Buenos Aires and London, with the simple message, ”when are you going to sit and begin negotiations?
Britain ’s ambassador to the United Nations has hit out at the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonisation (C24) for its “outdated” approach to dealing with overseas territories.
Ecuador' Xavier Lasso Mendoza was elected by 'acclamation' as Chair of the 2014 session of the Special Committee on Decolonization together with Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez (Cuba), Vandi Chidi Minah (Sierra Leone) and Desra Percaya (Indonesia), as Vice-Chairs, and Bashar Ja’afari (Syria), as Rapporteur, according to the UN release.