UN General Assembly
1981

11. No analysis is needed to state that the insularity of the Caribbean area is a fragmented one. It produces characteristic sociological phenomena that have not been advantageous to our harmonious and lasting union. The Dominican Republic enjoys the privilege of being probably the first country to point out that, because of its very nature and geographical situation, insularity should lead to thinking on a regional scale because of mutual interests and the new perspectives now opening up in the world. 12. Thus, this idea, which had become rooted in the nation's political thinking, began to take concrete shape during the official visit made to my country by the Minister for External Relations of Costa Rica in 1979. A novel and realistic conception of the greater Caribbean area came into being, based on linking all the independent countries whose territories are washed by those waters.