Trinidad and Tobago and the United States will engage in a special joint training exercise on local shores.
On Friday, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Sean Sobers, announced that members of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force and the United States 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit will participate in joint military exercises from November 16th to 21st, providing our soldiers with intensified capacity training.
The move, he said, underscores the country’s longstanding, fruitful partnership with the United States and US Southern Command, and will involve not only the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit but also its helicopters.
“The focus of the upcoming exercises will be military-to-military engagements, allowing personnel from both countries to become familiar with each other’s equipment, tactics and techniques. The exercise will challenge the participants, offering them expertise to expand their professional development. Training will take place across Trinidad and Tobago, in both urban and rural environments, with operations scheduled during dusk and after dark.”
He added that this strong military presence reflects the government’s commitment to making Trinidad and Tobago a “zone of peace,” a concept he noted this country is yet to fully experience.
“Having been through a crime scourge for the last two decades plus, recording over 600 murders in a year, Trinidad and Tobago has been disproportionately affected by transnational crime for some time. When you juxtapose those statistics to other countries within the Caribbean region, who record sometimes four murders for the month and forty-something murders for the year, and they are experiencing a crime wave, you can understand why we are in a totally different category.”
Minister Sobers assured the public that there is no need for panic, emphasising that the exercises will not affect law-abiding citizens.
“If it is fishermen, for example, had this inert fear about venturing into the sea that is being peddled by some persons, the cost of fish would be astronomically high. The cost of fish is reasonable as it has always been. Legitimate fishermen are going out and continuing to ply their trade. Pleasure craft persons are going out and continuing to ply their trade, so there’s nothing for law-abiding citizens within the region to be concerned about.”
He said the Government expects that the joint training will provide capacity training for the Defence Force, to get them to another level by gaining exposure to an intensified version of what they would have been accustomed to.