The Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Commission will meet for the first time next Wednesday and Thursday in Kingston, Jamaica, and the meeting is expected to move arrangements to the coordination and implementation phase.
The Commission comprises representatives of CARICOM member states, the United States (US), the Dominican Republic (DR), the CARICOM Secretariat, the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), and the Regional Security System (RSS), the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen said yesterday in a press release.
The commission was established following the inaugural Caribbean–United States Security Cooperation Dialogue held in Washington D.C. on May 27 last year. This first meeting is intended to move the process into the coordination and implementation phase, the release said.
United States President Barack Obama had announced his intent to pursue a security partnership with the Caribbean at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, which was held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009.
Since then, the governments of the Caribbean and the US have met four times to jointly define and develop the goals and scope for the CBSI.
In the meantime, the governments of the Caribbean broke new ground in April 2008 by agreeing to develop a common regional strategy and operational framework, and they continue to embrace President Obama’s response to CARICOM’s call for greater cooperation in the critical area of regional security.
This partnership, which is more than a series of programmes, will be an ongoing collaboration that draws upon and helps to develop the capacity of the Caribbean to address common security-related challenges.
According to the release, this first meeting of the commission will focus on two fundamental components of the CBSI, policy and programme coordination, and will provide an opportunity to agree on the terms of reference for the initial four Technical Working Groups (TWGs) agreed to at the inaugural Caribbean-US Security Cooperation Dialogue.
The meeting, the release stated, will also establish venues and participants, including other international partners, for the meetings of the TWGs; exchange views on how best to achieve the objectives and implement the Joint Plan of Action; and begin preparation for the Second Caribbean-US Security Cooperation Dialogue, scheduled for the first half of 2011.
