THE WATCH STAFF United States Sailors and Marines joined allies in Iceland for exercise Northern Viking from April 2-14, 2022. Northern Viking, which was led by the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet as a maritime-focused event for the first time in decades, included France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The multidomain exercise included amphibious landings, expeditionary and construction capability, search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance. “Northern Viking 22 has been incredibly successful for us and for the participating allies,” Icelandic Coast Guard Cmdr. Marvin Ingolfsson, deputy commander of Keflavík Air Base, said in a U.S. Navy news release. “We…
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DANISH JOINT ARCTIC COMMAND The Danish government recently published a new foreign and security policy strategy in which the Arctic and North Atlantic region plays an increasingly important role. The Kingdom of Denmark´s Arctic policy is low tension for the benefit of the Arctic states and its population. This policy is being pursued through strengthened cooperation among Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands regarding foreign, security and defense policy and in close cooperation and collaboration with allies and partners in the Arctic, especially the U.S. Over the past five years, the Danish Joint Arctic Command (JACO) has increased its capabilities…
MAJ. SUSAN MAGILL/JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has operated in the Canadian north for more than a century. This vast region encompasses 75% of Canada’s coastlines, almost 8 million square kilometers of land and sea, including 36,563 islands. Over 70 communities exist in our north, but this accounts for only 0.3% of Canada’s population. The effects of climate change, globalization and advanced technologies have increased access and international interest in Canada’s Arctic. While growing activity could create economic benefits for Canada, it could also increase strategic competition, environmental risks, search and rescue requirements, and illegal or…
THE WATCH STAFF The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) recently commissioned three members of the fledgling Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment. The officers, Capt. Dixie Smith, Lt. Jahiem Glinton and Lt. Earl Henry, were the second cohort of Marines from the reservist Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Regiment to be trained at the British military academy, according to an April 1, 2022, story in the Turks and Caicos Weekly News. Their two months of instruction included a range of military skills and physical training. “It was quite a unique experience … I definitely learned a lot,” Henry told Caribbean news…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A researcher was convicted on April 7, 2022, of illegally concealing work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson continues to weigh a defense motion, however, to dismiss the case against Feng “Franklin” Tao of Lawrence, Kansas. Jurors found him guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements for not disclosing on conflict-of-interest forms that he had been named to a Chinese talent program, the Changjiang Professorship, on grant applications. As part of that program, he traveled to China to set up…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Facing higher oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase the mining of critical minerals for the batteries used in electric vehicles. A person familiar with White House plans said production will occur under strong environmental and labor standards. Greater federal support for alternatives to fossil fuels would reduce the leverage of Russian President Vladimir Putin and others on matters of U.S. national and economic security, though it reflects a long-term play rather than an immediate response to the economic damage caused by the…
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…
THE WATCH STAFF As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has worked to increase its influence in the Western Hemisphere over the past two decades, one thing is apparent: Beijing has no plans to slow its activity. A Joint Action Plan (2022-2024) from the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) reinforces the PRC’s intentions to increase engagement in the region across a range of economic sectors, according to a January 12, 2022, report in The Diplomat online magazine. The PRC is South America’s leading trade partner and a major source of direct investment and loans in energy and…
THE WATCH STAFF Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has become a scourge of the “blue economy,” contributing to the depletion of global fish stocks. In the Caribbean, many countries are classified as “fish dependent” and IUU fishing has a large impact on the region’s food security, according to a July 19, 2021, report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The report said local catches have decreased because of IUU actors, forcing some nations to increase imports of seafood and impose catch quotas. “It is our quest in the Caribbean to partner with all international agencies to…
REUTERS Finland will decide whether it will apply to join the U.S.-led NATO alliance in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Sanna Marin, pictured, said on April 13, 2022, underlining a shift in security perspectives since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland and fellow Nordic state and neighbor Sweden are close partners with NATO but have shied away from joining the 30-member alliance, founded in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War. “We have to be prepared for all kinds of actions from Russia,” Marin told reporters at a joint news conference in Stockholm with her Swedish counterpart. She said the option to…