Senior defense officials from the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) traveled to Bermuda in July 2025 to meet with their counterparts as troops from both British Overseas Territories (BOT) trained together. The militaries have increased collaboration and joint exercises in recent months, deepening an already close relationship between the Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR) and the TCI Regiment.
Bermuda’s Minister of National Security Michael Weeks visited RBR headquarters at Warwick Camp where he discussed security and defense matters with TCI Permanent Secretary of National Security Tito Lightbourne and the TCI Regiment’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Ennis Grant. Tarita Cartwright, Bermuda’s acting permanent secretary of the Ministry of National Security, also attended the gathering during the second week of a joint training camp held for recruits of both territories. A mid-July heat wave heightened the challenges posed by the grueling fitness drills, discipline checks, first aid training, map reading and shooting practice, according to the Royal Gazette, a Bermuda newspaper.
Weeks praised the collaboration, saying, “There is something special about seeing our two territories working together as island territories and as an extended family.”
“We share a common history, we face similar challenges, and we have always looked out for each other when it counts,” he continued, according to the Gazette.
The RBR has functioned as a model for the TCI Regiment, formed in 2020 to respond to regional and national emergencies, including disaster relief and border protection. The TCI Regiment, along with the island’s police and maritime forces, performed key functions in recent years as illegal migration has soared in the region, particularly refugees fleeing gang violence and economic upheaval in Haiti. The July training will only amplify those efforts, Weeks said. “They are gaining skills that will protect lives, support communities and serve their country with pride,” he said.
The training camp is the latest joint operation conducted by the RBR and the TCI Regiment. In May 2025, members of both forces traveled to Jamaica for two weeks of training with troops from other BOTs and the Jamaica Defence Force in Exercise Rum Runner. The annual exercise promotes interoperability and training opportunities unavailable in Bermuda. More than 100 RBR Soldiers took part in long-range rifle practice, battlefield medical training and jungle patrols. TCI Regiment Soldiers also participated in the drills.