Juan David Latorre
The Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Marie Montfort Saintil, has developed during this week an intense diplomatic activity, with meetings with the Ambassadors of the Dominican Republic, Juan Bolivar Diaz, and of the Republic of Cuba, Gustavo Machin.
The meeting with the Dominican legation took place on Tuesday 9 March, and was held in an atmosphere of cordiality and friendliness, characteristic of the Caribbean character and logic between island neighbours. During the meeting, they discussed current issues currently shared by the two countries, which share a border of almost 400 kilometres, and which are developing policies aimed at increasing security along this space.
The two ambassadors also discussed the smooth functioning of cooperation between the two countries and expressed their desire to continue working to strengthen the ties between the two nations.
On Wednesday 10 March, the next meeting took place, in which both the Haitian and Cuban ambassadors agreed that “there is little diplomatic representation from the Caribbean in Spain”. However, both indicated that for some time now Spain has taken “a marked interest in liaising between the European Union and Latin America, which has perhaps begun to be noticed since Brexit”.
“From 2010, when the earthquake shook our country,” Ambassador Saintil commented, “Spain played a relentless role and has become our third partner, after the United States and Canada. And in terms of bilateral cooperation, Spain has become our first partner at the European level, and we are working to improve at the commercial level”.
Likewise, the Haitian Ambassador remarked that “Spain was the first country of the European Union to officially inform us that it had no objection to us setting up polling stations in its country so that the Haitian diaspora resident in Spain could go and vote before the constitutional referendum on 27 June”.
The Cuban ambassador declared his pleasure at meeting his Haitian colleague and the representation of his embassy, and the two Caribbean representatives agreed to strengthen links between the two legations for future collaboration in various fields.
