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Starting today military and security forces from throughout the Caribbean will join the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico, and the UK for maritime security and disaster response training at Camp Springfield in St Kitts as part of Exercise Tradewinds 2015.

This year’s Exercise Tradewinds will be conducted in three phases.

Phase I will include maritime and land operations, which will take place in St Kitts and Nevis through June 9. Phase II, in Belize from June 15 to 24, will include maritime and land operations, including United States Marines and Phase III, a Key Leader Seminar, will be conducted July 14 to 16 in Miami for key stakeholders and decision makers from the region.

Exercise Tradewinds supports the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), a U.S. Department of State regional security partnership.

Phase I and II are designed to conduct joint, interagency capacity building exercises for participating nations. Those exercises focus on increasing regional cooperation in complex, multinational security operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response operations.

“Tradewinds provides the opportunity to develop and strengthen our partnerships and allows all the participants to collaborate together to ensure regional security,” said General John F. Kelly, Commander of U.S. Southern Command.

“Like the other countries participating in Tradewinds, we value this collaboration as well as the awareness and teamwork it cultivates.”

The military and police personnel will be drawn from 13 CARICOM member states –Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

Participating regional organisations include the Regional Security System (RSS), Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Caribbean Disaster Response Unit (CRDU), CARICOM (IMPACS), and the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC). (PR/SAT)