During the meeting, the two leaders expressed an interest in boosting the economic and commercial dimension of relations between the two countries, and particularly in promoting Spanish investment, repositioning it, and in tourism, and in such other sectors as manufacturing, healthcare, education and services.

Pedro Sánchez also took advantage of the meeting to congratulate Luis Abinader on the smooth development of his country's National Vaccination Plan, which places the Dominican Republic as the second most advanced country in South America, behind only Chile. The President of the Government conveyed Spain's interest in ensuring that the vaccines reach everyone and highlighted our country's efforts to ensure that European Union donations include Latin America, which has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.

The President of the Government also highlighted the work of Spanish Cooperation, with a view to redirecting it to tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain has a new 2019-2022 Cooperation Framework, through which our country hopes to accompany the new Dominican Government in its efforts at inclusive and sustainable development.

Lastly, Pedro Sánchez congratulated Luis Abinader on the designation of his country to hold the Rotating Presidency of the Ibero-American Conference over the period 2021-2022 and to host the next Ibero-American Summit in 2022, which will focus on sustainable economic recovery. They both declared their wish to see a successful summit in Andorra on 21 April, and that, despite the challenge of the current health circumstances, tangible progress can be made on the post-pandemic recovery from an economic and health perspective.

Within the framework of the summit, Spain and the Dominican Republic will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultation through which both countries seek to improve the foundations to step up our already close bilateral relations.

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Prime Minister's Office of Spain published this content on 19 April 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 20 April 2021 07:43:03 UTC.