Obama discusses with President of Dominican Republic wide range of issues

[Judi Lynn]

Obama discusses with President of Dominican Republic wide range of issues
7/12/2010 11:49:00 PM

WASHINGTON, July 12 (KUNA) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met here Monday at the White House with President of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez during which they discussed a wide range of issues that are of mutual interest.

Following the meeting, Obama described his talks with Fernandez as "excellent" saying that "one of the first messages I wanted to deliver was my appreciation for the role that the Dominican Republic played in helping the international community respond to the crisis in Haiti" following the devastating earthquake that hit that country earlier this year.

He added that Fernandez and his government have also been "extremely helpful" in resolving the political crisis in Honduras, and that they discussed in this regard "ways that we can manage that process so that Honduras can once again be fully integrated into the regional groupings and organizations and in a way that is respectful of democracy." Obama indicated that they also discussed the "critical" issue of drug trafficking and crime, as well as expanding trade, commercial and business opportunities between the two countries.

He stressed that "one area that I expressed to the president that is of particular interest to me, is clean energy," and that he discussed also "how we can work more closely together around energy security issues." For his part, Fernandez indicated that during the talks, they agreed on several issues, "some bilateral issues between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, and also on regional issues." He expressed his appreciation to Obama for putting on his agenda Caribbean, Latin America and the Dominican Republic "with all the international issues, with all the crisis, with the economic situation that's affecting worldwide." He stressed that "one of our major concerns has to do with drug trafficking, with transnational crime, with violence related to all these criminal activities." He added that the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative "has been the right path forward," commending Obama for that.

As for clean energy, Fernandez said that his country is working on that "with wind energy and with the potential production of ethanol in our country." Furthermore, Fernandez shed light on the free-trade agreement between both countries "of which we have not benefited fully because of the global financial crisis and how it has affected trade. But we can look into the future, hopefully." He added that they are also hoping to increasing trade activities and more investments coming from the U.S. into the Dominican Republic. (end) si.sd KUNA 122349 Jul 10NNNN

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Stay focused, President Fernandez. Don't be pulled off-side.

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