Quito, December 20 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Friday that his country decided to end environmental cooperation with Germany after German lawmakers tried to visit an Amazon rainforest to meet with an opposition environmental group.

The German politicians were planning to assess plans to extract oil in the Yasuni National Park.

"If they think they had the right to doubt the word of Ecuador's government on the issue of Yasuni because they were providing funds, we'll give them their money back with interest," Patiño said.

In 2012, Berlin and Quito signed a cooperation deal worth $44 million to protect the Yasuni. They also signed another deal worth $9 million for other environment projects.

Patiño said his country has the sovereign right to approve or deny official visits from foreign countries. He said it should be clear that Germany and Ecuador sign agreements for cooperation on an equal footing.