Political relations between Ecuador and Germany go back a long way. The most important issues in their bilateral relations include development cooperation, environmental policy and the fight against organised crime, as well as the recruitment of skilled workers and the dual system of vocational training.

Within the European Union, Germany is one of Ecuador’s most important trading partners, German exports to Ecuador totalled 251.3 million euro in the first half of 2025 alone, while imports from Ecuador amounted to 512.3 million euro (source: GTAI, December 2025).

Since 1977, Quito has been home to a German-Ecuadorian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In addition to its Embassy, Ecuador maintains an Institute for Export and Investment Promotion (PRO ECUADOR) in Germany and has had a Consulate General in Hamburg since 1993. The trade agreement with the European Union, which entered into force on 1 January 2017, injected considerable momentum into bilateral economic relations.

Following the withdrawal of USAID, Germany is now the largest bilateral donor of development cooperation to Ecuador. The most recent bilateral intergovernmental negotiations on development cooperation were held in Berlin in October 2024. Support for projects amounting to 100 million euro was pledged. Priorities of the cooperation between Ecuador and Germany include peace and social cohesion (good governance, displacement and migration, prevention of violence), in addition to biodiversity and forest conservation and sustainable urban development.

The main cultural exchange intermediaries are the Humboldt-Gesellschaft in Quito, the German Cultural Centre (Centro Cultural Alemán) in Guayaquil and the three German schools, all of which are part of the German cultural association that has operated as a non-profit consortium since May 2025. German as a foreign language is gaining increasing importance, leading to the revival of the German Teachers’ Association in 2026, with a clear focus on skilled labour migration to Germany.

Cooperation in the higher education sector is based primarily on the work of the German Academic Exchange Service and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In March 2026, for the first time in over 20 years, a delegation from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) travelled to Ecuador. Among other sites, it visited the San Francisco research station in the south of the country, which has received funding for the past 30 years. A symposium with 300 participants was subsequently held at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, jointly hosted by the German Research Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service.