Regional counterparts from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines met for high-level talks on matters of regional security at the annual Regional Security System (RSS) Council of Ministers Meeting at the Beachcombers Hotel Conference Room in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Hilroy Brandy, Acting Commissioner of Police, and Lieutenant Colonel J. Anthony Comrie, Ralph Gonsalves, Chairman of the RSS Council of Ministers and Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said during his address that, “The bedrock of our security rests with our cooperation with the United States of America, with Britain, with Canada, with France, Holland and the rest of the European Union.”
“Citizen security and our region’s security is an important cross cutting developmental issue because in order for us to enjoy life and to enhance production we have to be safe and we have to be secure and we have to be uncompromising on this matter,” Gonsalves said.
The opening ceremony also featured remarks by Linda S. Taglialatela, US Ambassador to Barbados and the OECS; Lieutenant General Michael T. Plehn, Deputy Military Commander of the US SOUTHCOM; Janet Douglas, British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, and Marie Legault, Canadian High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
The meeting was expected to include the signing of the Grant Agreement for the Development of Maritime Security Strategies and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the RSS and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
The Barbados-based Regional Security System actively helps member Governments preserve the peace and stability of the region through cooperative engagement with partner nations and the peoples of the region.
Source: The St. Kitts & Nevis Observer
