BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Deputy Secretary General for Economic and Global Issues of the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS), Helena König, Tuesday said the European Union is committed to assisting its security partners in the Caribbean.
“Fighting transnational organized crime is a common priority for our regions, as consequences of the illicit trade of drugs and firearms are felt on both sides of the Atlantic,” said König, who paid a visit to the headquarters of the Regional Security System (RSS) here.
“I am delighted to officially launch our new partnership with the RSS, and I am sure that the training programs will provide officers with additional skills to combat crime and terrorism in the maritime and land domains,” said König, who is on a visit to the Caribbean.
The RSS and the EU recently renewed their partnership, signing a cooperation deal that will allow for the delivery of six training modules to RSS member states’ law enforcement and border security personnel.
The project will also include the rollout of a full-scale field training exercise at sea in St. Lucia next year. The RSS has also benefitted from EU support since 2016, with the aim of strengthening the organization's capacity to respond to transnational crime threats.
RSS executive director, Commodore Errington Shurland, in welcoming König, to the headquarters noted that the RSS has enjoyed an extremely rewarding partnership with the European Union.
“The new partnership with the European Union, seeks to build on our previous cooperation in strengthening institutional capacities to respond to common factors in our criminogenic environment.
“It is expected to foment our capacity to manage transnational organized crime in a realistic way with capacity-building programs aimed at operational planning, intelligence analysis, counter-terrorism tactics, polygraph examinations and the full-scale exercise to test the RSS response mechanism in addressing organized crime,” Shurland added.
He said this slew of interventions will ensure that the RSS membership will be provided with an opportunity to build further capacity in designing and executing effective inter-agency operations in response to transnational organized crime.
In addition to the RSS, König also visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is benefitting from EU support to its digitization. She also met with Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kerrie Symmonds; Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Sandra Husbands; Minister of the Environment Adrian Forde; and President of the Senate Reginald Farley.
The EU official has already visited St. Vincent and the Grenadines where she discussed ongoing projects with Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and the CELAC coordinating team in preparation for the upcoming EU-CELAC summit in Brussels on July 17-18.
König is due to visit Guyana and Suriname later this week.
