Home Highlights 2025 Official visit to the Dominican Republic lays groundwork for the Inter-Parliamentary Meeting of the Tenth Summit of the Americas

Official visit to the Dominican Republic lays groundwork for the Inter-Parliamentary Meeting of the Tenth Summit of the Americas

July 9, 2025 | Press Release

Photo Credit: National Congress of the Dominican Republic

During an official visit to the Dominican Republic, Colombian Senator Germán Blanco, Second Vice-President of ParlAmericas and President of the Open Parliament Network, held meetings with legislative authorities to consolidate cooperation agreements in support of the upcoming Inter-Parliamentary Gathering for the Tenth Summit of the Americas, scheduled to take place on November 27 and 28 in Santo Domingo. He was accompanied on this institutional mission by Anabella Zavagno, Deputy Director General of ParlAmericas.

The Gathering, co-organized by ParlAmericas and the National Congress of the Dominican Republic, will bring together parliamentary delegations from across the hemisphere to exchange perspectives on the central theme of the Summit: Building a Secure and Sustainable Hemisphere with Shared Prosperity. This official inter-parliamentary meeting will be held in Santo Domingo, the week prior to the Tenth Summit of the Americas, which will take place in Punta Cana.

During the Gathering, parliamentary delegates will adopt a declaration reflecting legislative perspectives on the key themes of the Tenth Summit: citizen security, food security, energy security, and water security. This declaration will be presented during the Summit as a parliamentary contribution to the intergovernmental deliberations and will include proposals for legislative follow-up on the commitments adopted by Heads of State and Government in their final declaration.

During their visit, the ParlAmericas delegation met with President of the Chamber of Deputies Alfredo Pacheco Osoria; President of the Senate Ricardo de los Santos Polanco; Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations and International Cooperation of the Chamber of Deputies Ignacio Aracena; and Senator María Mercedes Ortiz Diloné, Chair of the counterpart committee in the Senate.

The agenda also included a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Mr. Emil Chireno, Advisor to the Vice Minister for Multilateral Foreign Policy, Rubén Silié, and Ambassador Francina Grullón, Head of the Department of OAS Affairs.

These meetings served to advance a common roadmap and reaffirm the shared political will to organize a high-level inter-parliamentary meeting that strengthens coordination between the legislative branch and the Summit process. In this regard, ParlAmericas and the National Congress reiterated their commitment to working together to ensure the political and organizational success of the Gathering.

This collaboration is aligned with the mandate adopted by the Heads of State and Government at the Ninth Summit of the Americas, held in 2022, through the Inter-American Action Plan on Democratic Governance, which recognizes parliamentary engagement through ParlAmericas as an integral component of the Summit process.

This visit not only reinforces the ties of cooperation between ParlAmericas and the Dominican Republic but also represents a key step in strengthening the role of parliaments in regional governance. By incorporating legislative perspectives into hemispheric discussions, it contributes to building political consensus to address the region’s shared challenges.

Photo Credit: National Congress of the Dominican Republic