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Dear President-elect, the Czech Republic as well as I personally look forward to working with you and your administration and to continue developing the close relations which our countries enjoy.

Source: https://twitter.com/PREZIDENTmluvci

Don't you think that the verb "to continue" is used wrongly? Should it not be the correct form "continuing"?

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    "Continue" is one of a small number of verbs that cannot occur in the ing form when its complement is in the same form. The succession of two ing forms in "continuing developing" is not permitted by a rule called the 'doubl-ing constraint'. You need "to continue developing" or "continuing to develop"; either will do.
    – BillJ
    Nov 9, 2016 at 20:22
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    This is actually a classic example of one of the rules for good English writing style. If you have a "list" two or more items in the same sentence, you should use a parallel structure for each (working ... continuing). "Continue developing" has the right idea, but (if you have to use this phrase) "continuing to develop" is better style.
    – Andrew
    Nov 9, 2016 at 20:37

2 Answers 2

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You are correct, but you also need to recast develop to avoid the horror aequi of continuing developing:

 look forward to working    with you and your administration 
          and to continuing to develop the close relations which our countries enjoy  

But it's still trying to cram too much into one clause.

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It could be "...to continue developing" or "and continuing to develop..." it would not sound correct to have an -Ing verb after the other unless it is in a list like biking, developing,etc.

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