The Do­mini­can Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs an­nounced says sig­nif­i­cant progress was made dur­ing talks held on Thurs­day re­gard­ing the on­go­ing con­flict stem­ming from the con­struc­tion of a canal on the Hait­ian side, po­ten­tial­ly di­vert­ing the course of the Da­jabón Riv­er al­so called the Mas­sacre Riv­er.

Del­e­ga­tions from both the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Haiti con­vened at the For­eign Min­istry here to ad­dress the is­sue.

While spe­cif­ic de­tails about the par­tic­i­pants were not dis­closed, the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs con­firmed that a Hait­ian del­e­ga­tion ar­rived in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic to en­gage in a meet­ing of the Bi­na­tion­al Wa­ter Ta­ble.

The meet­ing was con­duct­ed in con­junc­tion with the Do­mini­can coun­ter­part and fo­cused on the Do­mini­can re­quest to halt the con­struc­tion of the canal in Haiti, de­signed to redi­rect wa­ter from the Da­jabón Riv­er.

The state­ment men­tioned that progress was made dur­ing these talks, lead­ing to an agree­ment to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on Thurs­day at the Do­mini­can For­eign Min­istry head­quar­ters.

The Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs and Wor­ship of Haiti had al­ready an­nounced that, by mu­tu­al agree­ment, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from both coun­tries would meet in San­to Domin­go to ad­dress the is­sue and seek a de­fin­i­tive so­lu­tion.

The Do­mini­can gov­ern­ment had is­sued an ul­ti­ma­tum, re­quir­ing the ces­sa­tion of the canal’s con­struc­tion, which could di­vert wa­ter from the Mas­sacre Riv­er.

If no res­o­lu­tion is reached dur­ing these on­go­ing talks, Pres­i­dent Luis Abi­nad­er has de­clared the clo­sure of the bor­der, in­clud­ing the sus­pen­sion of bi­na­tion­al trade via air, land, and sea.

The mas­sacre riv­er is so named be­cause it was the site of the killing of thir­ty French buc­ca­neers by Span­ish set­tlers in 1728.

SAN­TO DOMIN­GO, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Sep. 14, CMC