The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Alvarez, highlighted the progress made by the Dominican Republic through the projection of the regional leadership of President Luis Abinader and the implementation of foreign policy.
During an interview this Tuesday night on Telenoticias, hosted by Roberto Cavada, the Dominican Foreign Minister highlighted the agenda of visits and meetings that have been completed in recent months with key international actors, especially between presidents and foreign ministers, mentioning as a major milestone the signing of the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD) that includes the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama.
He also referred to the recent visit of President Abinader together with an important delegation to Argentina and Chile, an agenda that allowed the signing of agreements, as well as strengthening the solid ties that the president has achieved with strategic allies of other nations and that become significant economic and diplomatic opportunities for the country.
The Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD)
In his speech, the Minister pointed out that: “this Alliance has attracted attention in the continent and beyond, due to the fact that the three countries are relatively small and are stable democracies, which have developed a mechanism of this nature. The objective of creating the DDA is to make our countries visible and coordinate the work in its three main axes: political, international cooperation, economic development and foreign trade”.
He explained that “proof of this is that on March 2, while the United Nations General Assembly was still in the midst of voting on the conflict in Ukraine, the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, met with the foreign ministers of the three countries to discuss the Alliance”.
He also highlighted that President Joe Biden highlighted the Alliance, during the Democracy Summit held in December 2021, as an example to emulate in the region.
Álvarez informed that next March 21, the fourth presidential meeting of the DDA will be held in Costa Rica, where the Business Council of the three nations will be formally formed, which will also seek to integrate businessmen from the United States to identify collaboration niches with the US.
Official visit to Argentina and Chile
During the interview, the diplomat indicated that “the official trip to Chile was extended as a result of the request made by President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina to President Abinader to visit that country, prior to the inauguration of the new Chilean president”.
In Argentina, both presidents signed four agreements: one for hydrocarbon development, which includes the possibility of importing fuels from Argentina; one for wine cooperation, which will allow the development of our grape and wine industry; one for sanitary and phytosanitary cooperation; and another which is the road map for the implementation of the Agreement on Transplants between the Dominican Republic and Argentina.
In Chile, the Dominican president held exchanges of various kinds with outgoing President Sebastián Piñera and incoming President Gabriel Boric, as well as with the presidents of Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, as well as with the King of Spain and the prime ministers of Haiti, Guyana and Curaçao.
The Chancellor also valued the empathy and personal closeness of President Luis Abinader and the First Lady, Raquel Arbaje, noting that this facilitates diplomatic work. He added that “the fact that we have a democratic and fresh government has allowed our country to attract attention in the continent”.
Protection of Dominicans abroad
On the other hand, the chancellor also referred to the work carried out by MIREX in the protection of our nationals abroad, citing the cases of the past event in Chiapas, as well as the recent conflict in Ukraine, in which 20 Dominicans were identified, of which 18 managed to leave that country to various safe destinations.
The Dominican minister addressed these and other topics that can be seen in the video of the complete interview available on the MIREX Youtube account.
