Minister of Industry and Commerce Luis Manuel Bonetti and Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations Minou Tavarez Mirabal traveled to Taipei and Tokyo to formally apologize for the decision of President Leonel Fernández to suspend his trip to those countries. The President suspended his trip to attend to more pressing domestic matters at home. The President had prepared a trip to the Far East for 21 July. The trip would have included a visit to Silicon Valley, in California at the end of the month. No new date for the trip has been set. It would have been the first time that a Dominican statesman had traveled to the Far East on an official visit. The President has made an average of one trip abroad every six weeks since taking office. His opening of new doors abroad for the DR is seen as one of his administration’s major successes.
