Leonel to Washington today

[NewsWhore]

Amidst hopes and expectations for a solution to the country's definitive entry into DR-CAFTA and in an effort to achieve greater support from international organizations for the macro-economic stability of the nation, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez arrives in Washington, DC today, where he will meet with US President George W. Bush. Fernandez will complete a tight agenda that includes working sessions with government authorities and the presidents of the World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is the President's 26th trip abroad since he took office on 16 August 2004, and his first official visit to the White House. He will be accompanied by a committee of high-level officials, mainly from the economic team, including Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso; Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu; and the Presidential and Finance Ministers Danilo Medina and Vicento Bengoa, respectively. Also traveling are the Administrative and Technical Presidential Ministers Luis Manuel Bonetti and Temistocles Montas, as well as the Presidential Information and Press Directors Rafael Nunez and the Chief of Military Assistants, Major General Hector B. Medina. The Dominican Ambassador to the US, Flavio Dario Espinal, said that Fernandez and Bush will discuss a range of topics of interest to both leaders with the intention of reaffirming and strengthening relations between the two nations, according to report in Listin Diario. On the agenda are issues such as DR-CAFTA, drug trafficking, security, migration and terrorism. Fernandez was scheduled to leave the DR at 7:30am from the San Isidro Air Force Base and will arrive in Washington at 11:15am. At 2:30pm he will meet with the president of the IMF, Rodrigo de Rato; at 5:00pm with the president of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno, and at 6:30pm he will be greeted by staff from the Dominican Embassy and the OAS mission to Washington. Fernandez meets with President Bush at 1:15pm tomorrow.

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