Colombia’s Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin has begun a tour of the Dominican Republic and Haiti Tuesday, aimed at strengthening relations with the Caribbean countries, TeleSUR reports Tuesday.
Holguin will first arrive in Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, for high profile meetings with the nation’s president, Leonel Fernandez, and Holguin’s counterpart Carlos Morales.
The Colombian minister is expected to convey the Andean nation’s interest in improving cooperation between the two countries, as well as opening preliminary negotiations for an agreement over services and investment.
The Dominican Republic is currently Colombia’s main export destination in the Caribbean and there is apparently mutual interest in creating a regulatory framework for bilateral trade.
The foreign ministers of both Colombia and the Dominican Republic will then move on to Haiti to discuss the ongoing issue of reconstruction within the country following the devastating January 2010 earthquake.
The two ministers will hold meetings in the capital, Port au Prince, with President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean Max Belelrive, as well as Edmond Mulet the head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
President Juan Manuel Santos recently stated that “we are extremely worried” about the situation in Haiti, urging the international community to “be more proactive.”
Santos will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting next month aimed at “giving a push” to reconstruction efforts in Haiti, due to be held on April 6, after Colombia was elected as a non-permanent member of the council in October last year.