THE WATCH STAFF
Defense leaders from 21 nations — including the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico and the United States — discussed their challenges during the recent 2022 Caribbean Nations Security Conference (CANSEC) in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The April 5-7 conference, co-hosted by the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) and U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), highlighted the enduring relationships between the U.S. and its Caribbean neighbors. The talks focused on ways to enhance regional cooperation to confront threats that range from natural disasters to transnational organized crime to “competition between authoritarianism and democracy,” according to an April 7 news release from SOUTHCOM.
“These areas of cooperation are what true partnerships among fellow democracies look like,” U.S. Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of SOUTHCOM, said during the conference’s opening ceremony. “This is our shared neighborhood. Neighbors encourage each other, help each other succeed, lift each other up. And as we do so, there are no strings attached, and no fine print.”
(Pictured, left to right, front row: Jean Manes, civilian deputy to SOUTHCOM commander; U.S. Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, SOUTHCOM commander; Commodore Errington Shurland, Barbados Defence Force; and U.S. Ambassador to Barbados Linda Taglialatela.)
U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and SOUTHCOM both have regions of the Caribbean in their areas of responsibility.
During the opening ceremony, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the threats facing the region are all too familiar to its people.
“I don’t think any of us needs to be reminded of it, because we live it each and every day,” said Mottley, according to the SOUTHCOM news release. “But our role is not only cooperation. Our role is also to be able to give confidence to our populations that … as we say in Barbados and the Caribbean: We got this.”
Those attending the conference also included representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, France, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, the Netherlands,
St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.
Daniel Erickson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere said the Department of Defense is working with Caribbean partners to keep the region a “zone of peace.” He singled out transnational criminal organizations (TCO) as an imminent threat.
Richardson and Commodore Errington Shurland, the Barbados Defence Force chief of staff, signed an Engagement and Cooperation Framework to enhance bilateral defense engagements and security cooperation, focused on countering TCO, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and force development, according to a SOUTHCOM news release on Richardson’s high-level meetings.
“I believe that our cooperation over the course of the period of time that we have been working in CANSEC has been to our benefit. This is best seen, of course, in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Mottley said.
CANSEC discussions also focused on upcoming multinational exercises, like the SOUTHCOM-sponsored Tradewinds, which is focused on Caribbean security.
Also on her visit, Richardson and SOUTHCOM’s senior enlisted leader, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Benjamin Jones, took part in a discussion with BDF personnel on the role of women in security and implementation of the U.N.’s Women, Peace and Security initiative.
The Barbados conference was just one recent cooperative endeavor between the U.S. and its Caribbean partners:
- The Antigua & Barbuda Defence Force wrapped up training with Soldiers from the Florida National Guard’s Security Forces Assistance Brigade, who participated in a series of exercises that ended April 5, 2022. It was the first time such training was held in Antigua, and it was facilitated by the Military Liaison Office at the U.S. Embassy in Barbados.
- The fast-transport ship USNS Burlington visited Barbados on April 11, 2022, for a two-day port call and conducted joint training with the BDF, according to a news release from the U.S. Embassy. Sailors from the Burlington’s military detachment conducted small-arms training with the Barbados Coast Guard, as well as exchanged expertise on preventive maintenance and medical best practices.
IMAGE CREDIT: MASTER SGT. STEPHEN J. CARUSO/U.S. AIR FORCE