Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez after the first bilateral meeting with his colleague Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Santo Domingo on 30 April 2025 gave an overview of the closed-door talks for the press, with no questions allowed to be asked.
Alvarez said it was a “very productive” meeting and marked the diplomatic milestone of relations that go back 80 years.
Minister Alvarez highlighted the extensive and candid exchange. “One of the main topics of our conversation was the deep political, security, and humanitarian crisis affecting Haiti and its impact on the Dominican Republic. I presented Foreign Minister Lavrov with the Dominican Republic’s position, which advocates for coordinated and urgent action by the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti. We hope the United Nations will play a central and more active role in logistics and financing to ensure its effectiveness,” the Dominican foreign minister urged.
Russia is a veto-holding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Lavrov, who spoke before Alvarez during the press meeting, did not refer to the Haitian situation in his remarks.
Roberto Álvarez also mentioned that he and Minister Lavrov discussed the current complex geopolitical situation, the future of multilateralism, and the common challenges humanity faces. “It was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of an international system based on rules, particularly those established in the United Nations Charter, and respect for international law,” the host foreign minister emphasized.
Other topics addressed by the delegations of both countries included the state of bilateral relations and opportunities to intensify economic and cultural exchanges between the two nations. They also agreed on the significant potential to facilitate the arrival of Russian tourists to the Dominican Republic.
“We are grateful for the upcoming opening of the Russian Federation’s Embassy in Santo Domingo, which will further strengthen the bonds of friendship, cooperation, and understanding between our nations,” concluded Minister Roberto Álvarez. Lavrov confirmed Russia would open an embassy in Santo Domingo, “in its own building” but no date or location was given. Alexey Seredin has already presented credentials as the ambassador of Russia.
Speaking at the press meeting, Lavrov spoke of support for increasing tourism, with visa-free travel between both countries. He spoke of support for a business and trade forum to be organized in Russia to present opportunities in the Dominican Republic for Russian business people. “Our governments are interested in expanding mutual opportunities and a task force is created to foster more business ties with more Russian regions,” he said. He mentioned that Russia is a new observing measure in Caricom and expects to soon receive this status in Sica, the Central American Integration System.
Lavrov spoke of how “the Dominican Republic is our promising partner in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.” “There are great opportunities for both sides to strengthen, first and foremost, our trade and economic cooperation,” he said.
He also supported the idea that more Dominican students study in Russia; that Dominican police attend anti-drug courses at the Russian Interior Ministry’s center located in Managua, Nicaragua; and that emergency response agencies can receive training and education at the Russian-Cuban emergency center.
The Russian foreign minister outlined a favorable outlook for creating and launching economic and trade cooperation between the two nations, based on mutual respect.
Regarding his meeting with Foreign Minister Alvarez, he said that ‘the negotiations have been very fruitful, in a very good atmosphere,’ where they addressed the bilateral agenda and regional issues within the framework of the United Nations.
Tourism, which remains a key sphere of Russian-Dominican cooperation, has been boosted by the intergovernmental agreement on mutual visa-free travel by private individuals, which came into effect on 15 December 2020.
The Dominican Republic is a popular destination with Russian tourists. During the post-Covid year of 2021, it was in the group of top 20 countries by the number of Russian tourists, 166,000 of whom visited when new flights were made available following extraordinary efforts of the late Dominican ambassador in Russia, Hans Danenberg Castellanos.
Educational exchanges for decades have been a strong point in bilateral relations. State scholarships are annually granted to the Dominican young people studying at Russian universities. The quota for the 2024/2025 academic year is 15.
Overall, there are more than 3,200 graduates of Soviet and Russian universities in the Dominican Republic.
Participating in the meeting for the Dominican Republic were vice ministers Francisco Caraballo, Rubén Silié and Hugo Rivera; Dominican ambassador in Russia, Alejandro Arias; and Foreign Minister department directors Juan José Portorreal, Sachenka Encarnación, Anselmo Muñiz and Boni Guerrero.
Representing Russia at the meeting was vice minister Sergey Ryabkov; ambassador Alexey Seredin and the Russian Foreign Ministry director of the Latin America department, Alexander Shchetinin, among others.
Read more:
Ministry of Foreign Relations
Ministry of Foreign Relations
Ministry of Foreign Relations Russia
Noticias SIN – audio of the statements by Alvarez and Lavrov
Noticias SIN
Noticias SIN
N Digital
N Digital
N Digital
N Digital
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
DR1 News
1 May 2025