Dominican and United States Officials Meet to Discuss Maritime Cooperation

17 January 20020

Dominican and United States Officials Meet to Discuss Maritime Cooperation

SANTO DOMINGO - The United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Hans H. Hertell, will be one of the main speakers who will participate in the opening ceremony of the Maritime Conference of Mutual Support, the second of three conferences sponsored by the United States Southern Command between the maritime forces of the United States and those of the Dominican Republic. The goal’s to provide a space where both sectors can discuss subjects of mutual interest.

In the opening ceremony of the Conference, which will be held on January 17^th and 18^th in the Hotel Meliá Caribe, in Juan Dolio, Rear Admiral Luis A. Humeau Hidalgo, Navy Chief of Staff of the Dominican Republic, will also participate.

Ambassador Hertell, who assumed his functions as chief of the diplomatic mission to this country at the end of last year, expressed the following on the Dominican Armed Forces: “In my first impressions of the Dominican Armed Forces, I see a solid professionalism and a commitment to modernize not only the equipment but also to improve the strategy and doctrine of national defense, to face the ever changing nature of threats against the Dominican people.”

Regarding the cooperation offered by the United States to contribute to the development of the Dominican military institutions, Ambassador Hertell explained that “we recently obtained the transfer of an additional 133-foot ship coming from the reserve surplus of the United States Coast Guard which will give the Navy the means to carry out search and rescue missions, anti-narcotics actions and of maritime presence missions.”

This series of conferences is sponsored by the United States Southern Command, so that participants from both countries can discuss subjects as crucial as search and rescue, illegal immigration, and anti-narcotics efforts operations.

Also participating in the two-day conference are representatives of the Secretariat of State of the Armed Forces, the Navy, the Air Force, and the National Drug Control Directorate of the Dominican Republic.

On the part of the United States, officials from the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the Southern Command of the Naval Forces (NAVSO), the Greater Antilles Section of the United States Coast Guard (GANTSEC), the Joint Inter-Agency Team (East) (JIATF-EAST), the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Control Counsel, the United States State Department, and the Group of Military Assistance and Advisory Group of the United States Embassy (MAAG) will participate.