Foreign relations of the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
the Dominican Republic
Constitution
Political parties
Foreign relations

Politics portal

The Dominican Republic has a close relationship with the United States and with the other states of the Inter-American system. It has accredited diplomatic missions in most Western Hemisphere countries and in principal European capitals.

Bilateral relations

Argentina

Cuba

The Dominican Republic and Cuba recently established consular relations, and there is contact in fields such as commerce, culture, and sports.

Haiti

Haitian workers being transported in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.

Even though the Dominican Republic and Haiti are geographically neighbors and share an island, they have not had a very strong relationship between each other. The Dominican Republic and Haiti have been in disputes over the huge amount of immigrants that go to the Dominican Republic from Haiti. The main reason for the immigration had been the low economic status of Haiti, which is not in a very good standing today as of 2015, and has been that way for a couple of decades now. The Dominican Government has always provided Haitians with some easy steps to immigrate to the Dominican Republic, giving the Haitians more opportunities of getting jobs and growing as individuals. After the earthquake that Haiti suffered in 2010, The Dominican Republic offered help to Haiti by aiding them with medicine, food, and other supplies that could help them rebuild their nation and protect their people. After that, many Haitians moved to the Dominican Republic due to the lack of opportunities in Haiti.[3]

After the Haitian population started to dramatically increase in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican government started to make the immigration process from Haiti much more difficult in order to decrease the amount of Haitian immigration. This caused then the issue of undocumented immigrants. Rising since the Haitian earthquake, it was estimated that there were around 700,000 to 1 million undocumented Haitians in the DR by 2013. This has caused disputes between both governments, with the United Nations attempting to ease the dispute. The matter has not been resolved and the arguments still continue at the frontier of Dominican Republic and Haiti.[4]

India

Mexico

Diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Mexico were established on 23 July 1888.

Puerto Rico

The Dominican Republic has very strong ties and relations with Puerto Rico. Although a United States Commonwealth, the island is the Dominican Republic's largest trading partner. While relations between the islands have had difficulties, mainly due the huge exodus of illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic due to the nation's history of economic woes, the islands still, with the assistance of the United States Coast Guard and the Dominican Navy have worked hard to reduce the number of Dominicans crossing the Mona Passage in recent years. Puerto Rico is home to an estimated 485,000 Dominicans,[9] and the Dominican Republic maintains consulates in the cities of San Juan and Mayagüez.

South Korea

Spain

Taiwan

The Dominican Republic keeps official relations with the Republic of China (commonly known as "Taiwan") instead of the People's Republic of China.

United States

The U.S. has a strong interest in a democratic, stable, and economically healthy Dominican Republic. The country's standing as the largest Caribbean economy, second-largest country in terms of population and land mass, with large bilateral trade with the United States, and its proximity to the United States and other smaller Caribbean nations make the Dominican Republic an important partner in hemispheric affairs. The Embassy estimates that 100,000 U.S. citizens live in the Dominican Republic; many are dual nationals. An important element of the relationship between the two countries is the fact that more than 1 million individuals of Dominican origin reside in the United States, most of them in the metropolitan Northeast and some in Florida.

U.S. relations with the Dominican Republic are excellent, and the U.S. has been an outspoken supporter of that country's democratic and economic development. The Dominican Government has been supportive of many U.S. initiatives in the United Nations and related agencies. The two governments cooperate in the fight against the traffic in illegal substances. The Dominican Republic has worked closely with U.S. law enforcement officials on issues such as the extradition of fugitives and measures to hinder illegal migration.

The United States supports the Fernández administration's efforts to improve Dominican competitiveness, to attract foreign private investment, to fight corruption, and to modernize the tax system. Bilateral trade is important to both countries. U.S. firms, mostly manufacturers of apparel, footwear, and light electronics, as well as U.S. energy companies, account for much of the foreign private investment in the Dominican Republic.

Exports from the United States, including those from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to the Dominican Republic in 2005 totaled $5.3 billion, up 11% from the previous year. The Dominican Republic exported $4.5 billion to the United States in 2006, equaling some 75% of its export revenues. The Dominican Republic is the 47th-largest commercial partner of the U.S. The U.S. Embassy works closely with U.S. business firms and Dominican trade groups, both of which can take advantage of the new opportunities in this growing market. At the same time, the Embassy is working with the Dominican Government to resolve a range of ongoing commercial and investment disputes.

The Embassy counsels U.S. firms through its Country Commercial Guide and informally via meetings with business persons planning to invest or already investing in the Dominican Republic. This is a challenging business environment for U.S. firms, especially for medium to smaller sized businesses.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission is focused on improving access of underserved populations to quality health care and combating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; promoting economic growth through policy reform, support for CAFTA-DR implementation, and technical assistance to small producers and tourism groups; environmental protection and policy reform initiatives; improved access to quality primary, public education and assistance to at-risk youth; a model rural electrification program; and improving participation in democratic processes, while strengthening the judiciary and combating corruption across all sectors.[13]

Venezuela

The Dominican Republic and Venezuela have kept a very close relationship throughout the early 2000s. Currently, Venezuela is the biggest seller of oil to the Dominican Republic. In 2003, Venezuela was selling to the Dominican Republic an aproximate of 110,000 barrels of oil per day, making for more than 75% of the daily oil consumption in the country, including cars, factories, and electrical plants. Today, the Dominican Republic gets around 50,000 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela under the Petrocaribe agreement, which includes most of the Caribbean countries.[14]

Due to the Dominican Economy, the country cannot afford all this oil through pure cash, so to pay the oil to Venezuela, the Dominican Government pays them not only in cash, but also by exporting to Venezuela goods like Black Beans and other things like selling bonds. The Dominican Government has to export so many beans to Venezuela, Over 10,000 tons, that it had to start to import some beans from foreign countries to provide the population with beans.[15]

In January 2015 the Dominican Government raised almost 2 billion dollars to pay off part of the debt they owed to Venezuela.[16] The Dominican Republic currently represents a 1.5 billion dollar year revenue to Venezuela just in the oil business itself, which is the reason why the Dominican Republic and Venezuela government have such a strong connection now that both countries are getting what they need from each other.

Multilateral relations

The Dominican Republic forms part of the United Nations and many of its specialized and related agencies, including the World Bank, International Labour Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, and International Civil Aviation Organization. It also is a member of the OAS, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, World Customs Organization the Inter-American Development Bank, Central American Integration System, and ACP Group.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Embassy of Argentina in Santo Domingo (in Spanish)
  2. ↑ Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Buenos Aires (in Spanish)
  3. ↑ http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/dr-haitians-get-lost
  4. ↑ http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=351808&CategoryId=14092
  5. ↑ Indian Honorary Consulate in Dominican Republic
  6. ↑ Dominican Republic Embassy in India
  7. ↑ Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Mexico City (in Spanish)
  8. ↑ Embassy of Mexico in Santo Domingo (in Spanish)
  9. ↑ El 10% de la población de Puerto Rico es dominicana from Univision 10 December 2008
  10. ↑ http://www.mofa.go.kr/ENG/countries/latinamerica/countries/20070803/1_24576.jsp?menu=m_30_30
  11. ↑ Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Madrid (in Spanish)
  12. ↑ Embassy of Spain in Santo Domingo (in Spanish)
  13. ↑ U.S. Department of State: Dominican Republic
  14. ↑ http://www.ipsnews.net/2003/09/venezuela-dominican-republic-oil-a-pawn-in-bilateral-relations/
  15. ↑ http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/0327/Petrocaribe-Paying-beans-for-Venezuelan-oil
  16. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-30/dominican-republic-taps-1-9-billion-to-pay-venezuelan-oil-debt

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, November 27, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.