Foreign Minister, Madam Marjon V. Kamara, says the Government and people of Liberia are grateful to the Government and people of the United States for the wide range of assistance the U.S. is providing Liberia.

According to a dispatch from Liberia’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., Minister Kamara was speaking at the opening of the U.S.- Liberia Partnership Dialogue at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 10, 2017.

The Liberian foreign minister said through successive governments, the United States has remained a strong and reliable partner for nearly two centuries, and is currently supporting Liberia’s consolidation of peace, and its fledgling democracy, as well as economic recovery.

“We share common values of freedom, human dignity, equality and justice, which make it easy for us to collaborate and be mutually supportive in international fora,” she said, adding, “This collaboration proved useful throughout the negotiations at the United Nations, which produced the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda last year.”

She expressed special gratitude to the United States Government for the exemplary and successful effort made at the UN Security Council a few weeks ago to secure the final extension of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to March 2018.

Madam Kamara, who is heading a high-level Liberian delegation, indicated that the third U.S.- Liberia Partnership Dialogue has its origin in the landmark “Statement of Intent,” signed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton four years ago on January 15, 2013. That document, she added, established the U.S. - Liberia Partnership Dialogue as a framework for greater strategic cooperation between the two countries.

“We take pride in our collective efforts that have led to the realization of the critical infrastructure projects arising from the second Dialogue, which convened in Monrovia, Liberia in 2014,” she indicated, highlighting the landmark energy program that resulted in the commissioning of the first turbine under the Mt. Coffee Hydro rehabilitation program in December 2016, supported by the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact Project; the Food and Enterprise Development (FED) project that enhances food production, and security in Liberia.

Speaking earlier, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, underscored the special historical ties subsisting between the United States and Liberia, and reaffirmed U.S. commitment to support Liberia’s development process.

Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield, head of the U.S. delegation, said the Partnership Dialogue enables the U.S. and Liberia to identify areas of mutual cooperation and support for Liberia’s progress.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said the reopening of the Mt. Coffee hydro is not only a manifestation of U.S. support for Liberia’s progress, but that it signifies a new day in Liberia that the country is making progress.

Also speaking at the event, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, Ms. Christine Elder, said the priority of the U.S. Embassy in Liberia is to anchor Liberia on an irreversible path to democracy.

“We will seek to support Liberia as it increases its capacity to defend its border and provide its people with a more hopeful and more secure future through greater economic opportunity and improved access to health services and education.

The U.S.- Liberia Partnership Dialogue convened with a focus on four critical areas: Overcoming Challenges to Liberia’s Economy; Expanding Agriculture Production and Trade; Enhancing Liberia’s Investment and Infrastructure Climate; and Supporting Post Ebola Recovery and Health System Strengthening Efforts.

The high-level Liberian delegation at the Dialogue include Finance and Development Planning Minister Boima Kamara; Agriculture Minister, Dr. Moses Zinnah; Commerce and Industry Minister Axel Addy; Public Works Minister Gyude Moore; National Investment Commissioner (NIC) Executive Director George Wisner; Deputy Minister of Health and Social Welfare Tolbert Nyenswah; and the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Liberia in the U.S., Mr. Jeff G. Dowana.