President Keiko Fujimori Higuchi highlighted today that Peru and Ecuador maintain a fruitful peace and are now looking to take a further step by jointly confronting international organized crime.
In a column published in the newspaper *El Comercio*, the president noted that she had hosted her Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, for a Presidential Meeting and the 17th Binational Cabinet—a mechanism that brings together ministers from both nations to address a concrete agenda, ranging from trade to border integration, with a clear priority today: the fight against organized crime.
“Few neighbors in the region possess such a comprehensive tool for joint cooperation, and few can point to what Peru and Ecuador have achieved since 1998. The Brasilia Peace Agreements, signed that year by Presidents Alberto Fujimori and Jamil Mahuad, put an end to decades of conflict. Both leaders committed to something that seemed difficult at the time: a relationship built on peace and integration,” she remarked.
Since then, the head of state emphasized, trade between the two countries has grown from $300 million in 1998 to $2.6 billion in 2025—an increase of nearly ninefold—with this year’s figures indicating that the trend continues.
President Fujimori also highlighted that, last year, nearly 350,000 Ecuadorians visited Peru, making them the third-largest source of foreign tourists, following Chile and the United States.
“After nearly three decades of cooperation, we are convinced that our relationship with Ecuador holds even greater potential. For this reason, President Noboa and I agreed—in collaboration with the private sectors of both nations—to establish a binational business dialogue forum, designed to leverage the productive potential offered by our respective territories,” she stated.
“This space is also key to continuing to promote investment—as is already happening in the energy sector, with an electrical interconnection project that, on the Peruvian side, entails investments of over US$ 230 million,” she emphasized.
Furthermore, the leader underscored that for the relationship to remain prosperous, border security must be a priority.
“For decades, our armed forces viewed one another with distrust. Today, they work in coordination with our police forces against a common enemy: organized crime. That is why the agreements we have signed place this fight at the forefront,” she stated.
“We have agreed to resume coordinated operations between our armed forces, expand intelligence efforts among our police forces, and establish a binational mechanism to combat arms trafficking,” she stressed.
In this regard, she also noted that no single country can tackle illegal mining, drug trafficking, human trafficking, or irregular migration on its own; therefore, controls along the shared border will be strengthened, and migration procedures will be enforced exclusively at authorized crossing points.
Additionally, she indicated that, in light of the El Niño phenomenon, civil defense agencies will coordinate their actions, as rain does not distinguish between one side of the border and the other.
President Fujimori also mentioned that Peru has assumed the "pro tempore" presidency of the Andean Community from Ecuador for the 2026–2027 term.
In this capacity, Peru will advance a citizen-centered agenda aimed at confronting transnational organized crime, building greater regional resilience against natural disasters, and expanding trade, investment, and connectivity among member countries.
“Twenty-eight years ago, our nations proved that peace was possible. We moved from conflict to integration. Today, we seek to take another step forward: confronting organized crime together,” she remarked.
“It is now up to us to demonstrate that this peace can translate into well-being, more jobs, greater security, and more opportunities for those living on both sides of the border,” the head of state pointed out.
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Published: 10/21/2026