Dominican Republic Vice President Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrives in Delhi

Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India

New Delhi: Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India.

Raquel Pena Rodriguez will call on President Droupadi Murmu and hold discussions with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and other Indian dignitaries.

---

She will also deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs.

“Furthering – ties! A warm welcome to VP @RaquelPenaVice of the Dominican Republic, as she arrives in New Delhi on her first-ever visit to India,” the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi posted on social media platform, X.

The Dominican Republic Vice President is set to visit India at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Jagdeep Dhankhar. This will be the first-ever visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic to India. She is on a visit to India from October 3-5.

“The visit is significant as it takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year. The two countries established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999,” the MEA said in an official release.

Diplomatic relations between India and the Dominican Republic were established in May 1999. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May 2001 in Santo Domingo to hold regular Foreign Office consultations.

Dominican Republic is an important partner of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023, the MEA release added.

India’s exports to the Dominican Republic are small but growing.

Training and exchange of good practices have constituted the two main axes of cooperation between India and the Dominican Republic. Both nations have expressed their willingness to continue working together and to identify new initiatives.

Within the framework of the ITEC program, Dominican professionals have been receiving training since 1999 in Indian institutions in various disciplines. A centre of Excellence for Information Technologies set up in 2011 in Santiago, with the support of the Indian government, operated with three Indian instructors for a period of two years.