US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to meet with President Luis Abinader this Friday, 6 September 2024 in the Dominican Republic, Diario Libre reports, citing Haitian media. Blinken is traveling to Haiti this week and reportedly will cross the land border later to meet with Abinader on Friday.
Diario Libre says that Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste has said Blinken is traveling to Haiti on Wednesday for meetings with the president of the Presidential Transition Council, Edgard Leblanc Fils and Prime Minister Garry Conille.
President Luis Abinader will coincide with Blinken in Washington DC on Thursday, 5 September 2024 at the 27th Annual Conference of the CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. Abinader will return on that same Thursday to the Dominican Republic.
This will be Blinken’s first visit to the Dominican Republic. The US is a major financier of the Kenya security support mission and Caricom-supported Gary Conville government in Haiti.
Diario Libre recalls that while this is Blinken’s first visit to the Dominican Republic, in April 2023, Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman, second at the US Department of State, had already visited. In the Dominican Republic, Deputy Secretary Sherman met with President Luis Abinader, Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez, and other senior officials. The Department of State reported that the discussions reinforced the already strong and enduring bilateral ties across a broad range of issues, including the urgent situation in Haiti.
During the Trump administration, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came for the inauguration of President Luis Abinader in 2020.
The Dominican Republic has been without an ambassador during the Biden administration. The last ambassador Robin S. Bernstein left with the change of administration. The US Senate has named two ambassadors to the DR. The latest to be named is Puerto Rican Juan Carlos Iturregui, who has yet to take the position. He had his congressional hearing on 13 June 2024 before the Committee on Foreign Relations.
An editorial in Diario Libre mentions that the visit of Blinken to the DR would happen at a time when a news stories on corruption in the transition government and continued gang violence in Port-au-Prince are making headlines. The 4 September editorial further states:
“With the peacekeeping mission in Haiti yet to be fully established and only 400 Kenyan police on the ground, the crisis risks worsening. Blinken’s visit is expected to focus on coordinating efforts to stabilize Haiti, ensuring that the Dominican Republic is not further affected by the escalating insecurity.
“For the Dominican Republic, this visit presents an opportunity to raise concerns about the Haitian crisis’s impact on border security, as well as to address other outstanding issues between the two nations.”
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
4 September 2024