2022News

Explaining the Panama-Costa Rica-DR alliance

With the participation of the ministers of foreign affairs of Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, the Wilson Center held a conversation to highlight the Alliance for Development in Democracy, an initiative to promote democratic strengthening and economic growth through the tightening of the three countries’ commercial, demographic, and cultural ties. The event was held under the Wilson Center Latin American Program that provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere.

Panama Minister of Foreign Affairs Erika Mouynes, Rodolfo Solano for Costa Rica and Roberto Alvarez for the Dominican Republic addressed key issues.

The alliance was born in September 2021, when the presidents of Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic met during the UN General Assembly. The heads of state then launched the Alliance for Development in Democracy as an initiative to promote democratic strengthening and economic growth through the tightening of the three countries’ commercial, demographic, and cultural ties.

Presidents Laurentino Cortizo of Panama, Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica, and Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic propose to take actions to jump-start post-pandemic economic recovery and deal collaboratively with the severe migration challenges posed by multiple crises in neighboring countries.

The leaders hope that their nations’ pluralist, democratic traditions will make them attractive as strategic partners for the United States and Europe, especially in light of the pandemic-induced reconfiguration of global supply chains.

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12 January 2022