This Monday the fourth meeting took place between the leaders of Panama, Laurentizo Cortizo; from Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado and from the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader in the Alianza for Development in Democracy.
In general, this summit had as specific agenda aspects such as the strengthening of institutions for the search for democracy, freedom of expression, inclusive economic growth, environmental conservation, irregular migration and the promotion of job opportunities.
Regarding the strengthening of the administration of justice, the president of Panama pointed out that it is important to address the negative factors to promote the social and economic development of the countries.
“In the particular case of Panama, we have been working very hard on the issue of security and the fight against organized crime, and that has been an extremely important, concrete alliance, and has allowed us to come to an agreement and today we can say that the year 2021 broke the record for drug seizures and that is what we want to continue doing in 2022,” Cortizo said.
On the other hand, in this space it was reported that on May 3, 2022, Panama will host the 22 countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to define a regional proposal for economic reactivation; which will be presented to the G20, the United Nations and the Summit of the Americas.
Regarding the issue of migration, Cortizo stressed that it is important for the entire region and not just for the United States; He mentioned that teamwork must be done to reduce the number of irregular migrants.
“The Dominican Republic allocates approximately 400 million dollars per year in health care to Haitians and we in Panama are allocating over 50 million dollars on the border with Darién,” he said.
Regarding the trade and investment issue, the leaders stated that it was agreed with the United States to seek alternatives for economic integration in order to reduce the existing problems in the supply chains, so that the geographical proximity of the markets can be taken advantage of.
“You in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama have true allies, where we respect each other, and that is the way to move forward in this Alliance for Development in Democracy and find concrete solutions that lead to a good result,” said Cortizo. to the American delegates.
In order to follow up on the objectives, they determined that they would form a working group that can analyze the specific proposals to promote the growth of different areas such as manufacturing and services.
In addition, they agreed to ask multilateral organizations to establish emergency lines to solve the financing of countries in times of crisis, as well as request debt relief lines from the International Monetary Fund to promote sustainability.
It should be noted that another of the aspects valued was the request for support from international organizations to the private sector to achieve greater effectiveness in financing through the banking system, through guarantee programs.
Finally, the leaders condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty by the Russian offensive.
“We strongly call for the negotiations and diplomatic dialogue to continue, and for the promotion of peace and respect for multilateralism to be the only axis of action at this juncture,” said the Costa Rican delegation.
The 2022-2024 Action Plan of the Alliance for Development in Democracy was also established at this meeting. The fifth meeting of the same will take place in September in the framework of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
