THE WATCH STAFF
Representatives of the Rhode Island National Guard (RING) strengthened their partnership with the Bahamas during recent visits where they paid courtesy calls on Bahamian defense officials and participated in the inaugural Bilateral Security Cooperation Framework Executive Session.
A relationship between Rhode Island and the Bahamas was established in 2005 through the United States Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program (SPP). It links the RING with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) in a mutually beneficial exchange to enhance diplomacy and security.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Callahan, the RING adjutant general, paid a courtesy call on Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe and Commodore Raymond King, the RBDF Commander, in Nassau on May 10, 2022. Callahan also attended a memorial ceremony for the HMBS Flamingo at RBDF Coral Harbour Base and made a presentation to King, pictured. The Bahamian ship was attacked by Cuban warplanes in 1980 while apprehending two Cuban vessels for illegal fishing. Four crewmen were lost when it sank.
RING representatives also participated in the April executive session between the RBDF and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) held in Nassau. The U.S. delegation for the April 18-22 visit included Navy Rear Adm. Daniel Cheever, who leads the development of strategy, policy, plans and security cooperation with Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas for USNORTHCOM. Cheever co-chaired a two-day session held at Coral Harbour Base, along with King, the RBDF commander.
During the session, Cheever provided an overview of USNORTHCOM and the regional threat picture, stressing the importance of the bilateral security relationship. The RBDF provided an update on its current and future operations. Five working groups made up of members from RING, RBDF, USNORTHCOM, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, U.S. Coast Guard, the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies and the Institute for Security Governance, briefed Cheever and King on a range of security-cooperation objectives and plans.
The discussions focused primarily on maritime domain awareness, domain control and building institutional capacity. King and Cheever agreed that the meaningful participation of women in peace and security and noncommissioned officer professionalization were integral to their efforts to improve in areas that included disaster response, maritime interdiction operations and cybersecurity.
Those bilateral efforts include the RING relationship through the SPP. Since the early 1990s, the SPP has grown significantly, with partners in more than 90 nations across all geographic combatant commands. The National Guards of all 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia participate in SPP, according to The American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on the U.S. military.
One notable partnership: For almost 30 years, the California National Guard has trained with the Ukrainian military.
“The efforts of California that have contributed to development of not only our military, but Ukraine as an independent state, are very difficult to overestimate,” Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi, the defense attache in Ukraine’s Washington, D.C., embassy told the Homefront Project in a May 8 story.
IMAGE CREDIT: ROYAL BAHAMAS DEFENCE FORCE