Spanish
SANTO DOMINGO. – President Luis Abinader announced this Monday that next week he will meet with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, during the UN General Assembly, to discuss the security situation in Haiti.
“We are going to the UN and will discuss the new vision of the United States Government on how to address the situation in Haiti. We will hold bilateral meetings, even those requested by them,” the president indicated in his weekly meeting with the media at the National Palace.
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Abinader highlighted that the Haitian issue is "fundamental" for the foreign policy of the Dominican Republic and that his country cannot be absent from international discussions about the crisis in the neighboring nation.
Security in Haiti worries Washington and the region: in May, Rubio suggested that the Organization of American States (OAS) play a more active role in the country, noting that criminal gangs control large areas of Haitian territory. The US government was willing to lead the OAS intervention, always with the support of other regional partners. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share a border of almost 400 kilometers, where the DR has reinforced security with a fence and the deployment of thousands of soldiers to stop the passage of gangs, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and smuggling. Meanwhile, the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), led by Kenya and backed by the U.S., will conclude its mandate in October; it currently has about 1,000 troops, but violence in Haiti remains high, with more than 4,000 homicides in the first six months of the year and 1.3 million internally displaced persons.
