Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The governments of Dominica and Brazil have signed a pair of cooperation agreements.

The deals include an agreement first proposed at the Brazil-CARICOM summit in 2010 and a $100,000 pact between the two countries’ water utilities.

“We signed an agreement in water resource development in September 2013 and the Government of Brazil has proposed a water resource management programme through which we will see representatives of DOWASCO visiting Brazil and representatives from the water resource company in Brazil visiting Dominica,” said Careen Prevost, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “They will be looking at soil management, water resource management, sanitation and hydrological monitoring systems.”

The two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1986.

“We are going to open our bilateral cooperation not only in water resource but agriculture and any other area which the Prime Minister would like to include. With this big umbrella agreement, we can include many things,” said Brazil’s Ambassador to Dominica, Jose Marcos Viana. “Any other type of cooperation that Dominica would like to have from Brazil.”

In a statement, Dominica Prime Minister said Brazil had “remained true to CARICOM and Dominica’s request to speak on our behalf to those very important international financial institutions.”

“We’ve also seen, in recent years, the strengthening relations between Dominica and Brazil and we enjoy fraternal relations and share many issues on the global scale, whether the United Nations or the Food and Agriculture Organization or in this case here: bilateral relations in regards to water resource management,” he said.