Tradewinds 2015 Launches
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Commander of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defense Force Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Wallace welcomed security personnel from 19 nations, to Exercise Tradewinds 2015, which got underway in St. Kitts on Sunday.
“The aim of this exercise is to promote regional security and cooperation, with a focus on countering trans-national organized crime and also to exercise the participants on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.”
Some 200 personnel from across the region will participate in Phase One of United States-sponsored Tradewinds 2015, which was officially launched on Sunday runs through June 9th.
“In terms of our specialty within the regional force which is RSS…we mostly deal with disaster response within the region, also with drug interdiction, counter trafficking [etcetera]…Due to the fact that we are open to the…world…we play a very big part in the region,” says Gerald Connor, a Lieutenant with the St. Kitts and Nevis Defence Force.
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“If you look at it, St. Kitts is strategically located within the middle of the chain of islands…which would expose us to the different threats coming from…international gangs coming in with drug smuggling…so we play a very important role in terms of counter…narcotics trafficking…and also in relation to disaster preparedness, because based upon our position we’d be able to conduct operations within the south and also within the north.”
Lieutenant Connor says the Exercise also has an important role in information sharing between the participating nations.
Tradewinds Phase Two will be hosted in Belize from June 15-24. That component is designed to build upon the relationships established in Phase One while focusing on land and maritime operations.
Phase Three is a Key Leader Seminar to discuss the other phases and the way forward, which will be hosted in Miami June 14th-16th.
