On behalf of the people of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of the Dominican Republic on the 176th anniversary of your independence on February 27.

The U.S. partnership with the Dominican Republic promotes our shared prosperity and security, expands our people-to-people ties, and strengthens our disaster resilience. Our deep bilateral relations are rooted in a mutual commitment to transparency, rule of law, and democracy. The U.S.-Caribbean 2020 Engagement Strategy continues to advance these relations, as exemplified by the recent visit of the hospital ship USNS Comfort, which provided family medicine, optometry, dentistry, and surgery care to more than 6,500 Dominicans.

The United States values our longstanding friendship, and I send the people of the Dominican Republic best wishes on their Independence Day.