President Fernández Encourages Understanding Between Haiti and Dominican Republic

Dominican President Leonel Fernández assured participants of the Dominican-Haitian Global Forum that he is committed to creating a space for dialogue, exchange of opinions and ideas and research with the goal of getting to better know each other and to promote a policy of mutual recognition and support, democracy, development and dignity between the two peoples who share the island of Santo Domingo.

he is committed to creating a space for dialogue, exchange of opinions and ideas and research with the goal of getting to better know each other and to promote a policy of mutual recognition and support…

The President said that throughout the years, there has been an absence of understanding, dialogue and cooperation between the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti , according to the Presidential Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

President Fernández’s pronouncements were made at the end of the opening act of the forum which was held last Wednesday in the offices of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE). He was accompanied by the Ministers of Foreign Relations and Administration of the President’s Office, Carlos Morales Troncoso and Luis Manuel Bonetti, respectively, in addition to the Dominican Ambassador José Serulle.

Fernández said the agenda of the Forum could involve monthly encounters that will give participants an opportunity to prepare, identify institutions and personalities and to comprehend the history and culture of one another so that in the future they can develop other initiatives.

He said he considered it is important to elevate the levels of understanding between the Dominican and Haitian people to achieve brotherly relations.

“I think that as we get to know each other and can identify institutions, personalities and comprehension for one another’s history and culture, both nations will be enriched,” said the Dominican Head of State.

He called for a better comprehension of history and current reality between the two nations so that the people who share this island can begin to see each other as friends and relatives.

President Fernández pointed to the good relations that exist between him and Haitian President René Preval.

Referring to the Economic Fair underway on the Dominican-Haitian border, the President said that it is magnificent, according to information received from Ambassador Serulle who underscored the success of the Fair as a contribution to improvement of relations between the countries.

Speakers at the Dominican-Haitian Global Forum, moderated by historian Juan Daniel Balcácer of the Efemérides Patrias Commission, included Frederic Emán-Zade, Executive Director of FUNGLODE; Dieudonne Fardin, FUNGLODE representative in Haiti; Magda Mathurin, Coordinator of the Forum; filmmaker Arnold Antonin and Pilar Sandoval, Executive Director of the Dominican Association of the of the United Nations in the Dominican Republic.

During the event a film by Arnold Antonin “Jacques Roumain: The Passion of a Country,” was shown. There was also a photographic exhibition called “A History in Pictures of Dominican-Haitian Relations in the 1935-1946 Context.”

The exhibitions of the Dominican-Haitian Global Forum will be on display through Thursday from 7:00 p.m. at FUNGLODE under the theme “Dominican-Haitian Relations. The Case: Trujillo and Elie Lescot”. .