President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa makes an official visit to the Dominican Republic this Thursday before attending the 28th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government on Friday and Saturday.
The head of state arrived in Santo Domingo on Wednesday evening on a commercial flight after a stopover in Madrid, along with Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho.
The program of this one-day official visit, centered in the capital, begins with a meeting with the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who will receive Marcelo Rebela de Souza at the National Palace with military honors.
In the afternoon, after laying a wreath at the Altar of the Fatherland, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be received by the Presidents of the Senate, Eduardo Estrella and the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, in the National Congress, where he will speak.
At the end of the day, the head of state will meet with Portuguese residents in the Dominican Republic and representatives of national companies with a presence in this Caribbean country, a former Spanish colony.
Neighboring Haiti, which occupies the western third of the island, the Dominican Republic has a population of about ten million inhabitants, slightly less than Portugal and about half the area.
Tourism plays a big role in the economy of the Dominican Republic, as well as in the construction and mining sectors. The United States of America is the main economic partner.
The political system is presidential, with elections every four years. Luis Abinader of the Party of Modern Revolutionaries, economist, 55 years old, has been President of the Republic since August 2020.
The 28th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government will take place from Friday to Saturday in Santo Domingo under the motto “Together for a Just and Sustainable Ibero-America”. Portugal will be represented by President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa.
Former President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio was in the Dominican Republic in November 2002 to attend the 12th Ibero-American Summit in Bavaro, in the tourist area of Punta Cana, along with then Prime Minister José Manuel Duran Barroso. .
Mario Soares also spent time in the Dominican Republic as head of state, where he held political meetings in June 1994 on his way to Portugal, on his way back from the 4th Ibero-American Summit in Colombia to Cartagena de Indias. .
The Ibero-American community consists of 22 countries, of which three are European, Portugal, Spain and Andorra, and 19 are Latin American: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The first summit of this community was held in 1991 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Meetings of heads of state and government were held annually until 2014. Since then, they have only been held once every two years.
This will be Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s fourth participation in the Ibero-American summits after those held in Colombia in 2016, Guatemala in 2018 and Andorra in 2021.