Haiti, Dominican Republic Hold High-Level Talks in Ouanaminthe

Above: Dominican Republic Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo and Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe (Photo: DICOM)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti and the Dominican Republic held high-level bilateral talks in the northeastern Haitian city of Ouanaminthe on Tuesday.

The talks came during the continuing controversy over a September citizenship ruling by the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court.

That was not the only subject of discussion, however, as the two sides addressed a number of issues including trade, the environment and  agricultural exports.

Commissions from Haiti and the Dominican Republic met at the Compagnie Industriel Development (CODEVI) free trade zone, which is overseen by the Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral, a Dominican nonprofit organization.

In a statement on Facebook, Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, who led the Haitian delegation, called the talks “very fruitful.”

In a government statement, the Dominican side called the discussions “frank, constructive and enlightening.”

Both parties have agreed on the reactivation of the two countries’ Bilateral Joint Commission to monitor decisions taken during the dialogue, Lamothe said.

Lamothe said the Haitian side had requested assurances that “concrete measures” be taken to safeguard the human rights of people of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic, and that the Dominican Republic had “confirmed this guarantee.”

The Dominican Republic said that, in the coming weeks, it would be advancing additional legislation to respond to certain cases referred to in its recently-issued Regularization Plan.

In the Dominican statement, issued by the office of President Danilo Medina, the government said that Haiti had also “recognized the sovereign right of the Dominican Republic to determine its immigration policy and rules for granting nationality.”

Haiti and the Dominican Republic had agreed to hold Tuesday’s talks at a meeting in Caracas in December.

The talks were witnessed by observers including the European Union’s Marion Caviano, the United Nations’ Peter de Clerq and CARICOM Ambassador Coli Granderson.

The next round of bilateral talks will be held on Feb. 3 in the Dominican Republic, the first of talks which will be held on the first Monday of each month in alternating countries.

Updated: Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 9:51 PM.