Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Pres­i­dent Luis Abi­nad­er an­nounced yes­ter­day that he has au­tho­rised the US gov­ern­ment to op­er­ate in­side re­strict­ed ar­eas in the Caribbean coun­try to help in its fight against drug traf­fick­ing.

For a lim­it­ed time, the US can re­fu­el air­craft and trans­port equip­ment and tech­ni­cal per­son­nel at re­strict­ed ar­eas with­in the San Isidro Air Base and Las Améri­c­as In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, said Abi­nad­er, who made the an­nounce­ment with US Sec­re­tary of War Pe­te Hegseth at his side.

Hegseth was in San­to Domin­go yes­ter­day to meet with the coun­try’s top lead­ers, in­clud­ing Abi­nad­er and Min­is­ter of De­fence Lt Gen Car­los An­to­nio Fer­nán­dez Onofre.

It is the first ma­jor pub­lic agree­ment that the US has struck with a Caribbean na­tion as it seeks friend­ly al­lies to sup­port its at­tacks against al­leged drug-smug­gling boats in the re­gion and be­yond. Since the strikes be­gan in ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, at least 83 peo­ple have been killed.

Hegseth said the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic was a re­gion­al leader will­ing to take on hard chal­lenges.

“That’s why I’m here to­day. That’s why we de­cid­ed to come here first,” he said. “The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic has stepped up.”

Hegseth said the US would re­spect the Caribbean coun­try’s sov­er­eign­ty and laws as US ser­vice mem­bers and air­craft pre­pare to de­ploy to the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic. He did not pro­vide ad­di­tion­al de­tails. - AP