Dominican Republic and Kazakhstan to broaden bilateral cooperation
According to Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry, entrepreneurs from the Dominican Republic have expressed interest in exploring rare earth deposits and participating in energy projects in Kazakhstan.
«At a meeting organized by the Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in this country [the Dominican Republic] Tomás González together with a number of his colleagues, representatives of local businesses expressed a desire to establish trade and economic cooperation with Kazakhstan and expressed interest in projects proposed in various areas, including the development of rare earth metals, energy, agriculture and others,» the agency said in a statement on its website.
This meeting was part of a working visit to the Dominican Republic by Andrian Yelemesov, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Cuba, during which he met with the country’s Vice Minister for Consular and Immigration Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Opinio Díaz. They specifically discussed an agreement allowing citizens with regular passports to travel visa-free in both directions. The document was signed on Sept. 22, 2022, in New York but awaits ratification by the Dominican Republic. On the other hand, holders of diplomatic and service/official passports have had visa-free travel privileges since Sept. 5, 2024. The Dominican side pledged to finally ratify the agreement by the end of May.
Among other prospects for further cooperation, the Dominican prosecutor general’s office stated its readiness to sign an agreement on mutual assistance in criminal matters and the transfer of sentenced persons. The country’s representatives proposed holding a signing ceremony during the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York in September. Furthermore, the sides discussed the initiative to export saiga antelope products.
«At a meeting with Deputy Minister of Environment and Nature Protection of the Dominican Republic Carlos Augusto Batista and experts from this department, the Kazakh side’s proposal to cancel the annotation on the zero export quota for commercial trade in saiga products (only the Kazakh saiga population) at the Convention on International Trade in Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference, which will be held in 2025, was discussed. The representatives of the Dominican Republic accepted Kazakhstan’s offer with understanding and promised to support Kazakhstan at the CITES conference,» the statement said.
During a meeting with Dominican Interior Minister Faride Raful, the agency’s representatives expressed interest in cooperating with their Kazakhstani counterparts and proposed signing a corresponding memorandum.
Earlier this year, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Construction reported the discovery of 11 fields containing 17 types of rare earth elements, including lithium, lanthanides, tellurides and neodymium. According to Margulan Baibatyrov, deputy chair of the geology committee under the Ministry of Industry and Construction, these metals are in high demand, as they are widely used in the manufacturing of turbines, electric vehicles and other products.
Kazakhstan produces 19 out of 34 rare earth elements considered critically important for EU economies, including beryllium, tantalum, niobium and rhenium, all of which play crucial roles in the electronics, defense, energy and telecommunications industries, the agency said. All in all, Kazakhstan possesses more than 100 deposits of rare and rare earth metals, including sites such as Kurumsak, Bala-Sauskandyk, Akbulak, Kundybay and Verkhnee-Espe, among others.
