Dominican Republic And Netherlands Establish Caribbean Maritime Borders

Santo Domingo, July 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jul, 2021 ) :The Dominican Republic and the Netherlands, which has several Caribbean islands including Aruba and Curacao, signed an agreement Monday establishing their maritime borders in the region, the Dominican government and Dutch ambassador said.

"The Dominican Republic signed with the Kingdom of the Netherlands a maritime delineation agreement that establishes the border between the two parties in the Caribbean Sea," the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"Today, we made history with a maritime delineation agreement. An important event for security and development," Dutch Ambassador Annemieke Verrijp said on Twitter.

The Netherlands claims a string of islands in the region: Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the territories of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

"We have six maritime borders. In 1978, we delineated the ocean territory with Colombia, and in 1979 with Venezuela. Since then, we haven't done that with the remaining four countries," Dominican Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Alvarez said on Twitter.

"Today we have made an agreement with the Netherlands," he wrote.

The other three countries are Haiti, Britain, which owns Turks and Caicos, and the United States, which owns Puerto Rico.

The Dominican ministry said in the statement that it would give "the greatest possible attention" and "necessary resources" to establishing those boundaries as well.

It said that the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands would "facilitate development and scientific marine research in their areas."str-pgf/caw/jfx