SANTO DOMINGO – The Dominican Republic and the Netherlands, representing Aruba and Curacao, signed an agreement on Monday establishing their maritime borders in the region, the Dutch ambassador in that country announced.
“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.
Several islands are part of the Dutch Kingdom. These are 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 have not 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.
