Yesterday, we took you to the BDF's Camp Belizario in Cayo for a look at Tropical Dagger, a regional training initiative in Belize which brought representatives of the top security forces from Canada, Belize Jamaica, and Trinidad for the entire month of November. Well today, the Ministry of National Security invited us to Naia Resort in Placencia, where military leaders from the Belize Coast Guard, the BDF, the Canadian Armed Forces, the British Army, the US Army, the Mexican military, and the Taiwanese Military were meeting for their annual Multinational Security Cooperation Conference.
Like Tropical Dagger, the Security Conference aims to foster closer cooperation between the security forces of Belize's allies, where they seek to combat shared challenges like regional security, and the fight against transnational organized crime, such as narcotics trafficking. This was a high-level security meeting, where the parties were discussing how best these allied, sister military forces could assist the BDF and the Coast Guard to better protect Belize's territory from foreign and domestic threats to national security.
7News travelled to Placencia this morning, and we got a chance to speak with a few of the military leaders about their interest in the conference, and what shared benefits it provides for all involved:
Felix Enriquez - CEO, Ministry of National Security (Defense)
"This is the Multinational Security Conference that our defense partners hold every year. This is the 4th one that we've been having annually. This year, we have participation from the UK, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Taiwanese Attache as well, who is present here. Now, what we try to do is coordinator our efforts in regional security, in training opportunities, and in the overall development of our partnership in terms of defense, not just for Belize, but for the other nations as well."
Lt. Col. Anton Gash - British Defense Attache, British Army
"None of us have enough assets or resources to be able to waste them, and that comes from all sides of the equation. So, if you have partners, like we have represented today, the US, Canada, UK, Mexico - we also have Taiwan here today - we have to make sure that we are not duplicating effort - we're not repeating activity."
Col. Dany Poitras - Representative, Canadian Armed Forces
"For Canada, participating in the National Security Conference is part of our global broader objectives. So, we're focusing mainly on counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, fostering the collaboration between the partners and also enhancing the overall security in the region. So, being part of that conference achieves that goal for us."
Felix Enriquez
"So, we discuss these things, and we see where our partnership could assist us both ways, with the resources, and the human capacity, financing from the other countries. We build from their experiences. We learn from their experiences, and they learn from ours as well because a lot of the practical experiences that we have here with drug trafficking, and the anti-narcotics and crime efforts that we have, they have the same as well."
"This year, we're focusing primarily on transnational crime, some of the recent surges that we have seen, particularly with the aircraft landings, the assistance that we do to the civil society, in terms of anti-narcotics, in terms of developing our Joint Intelligence Operation Center, and the other third pillar that we're focusing on is women in peace and security."
Lt. Col. Eldridge Singleton -US Senior Defense Official, US Embassy
"I think one of the most interesting topics that we've talked about so far has been the women in peace and security policy, and the Belizean Defense Force and the Belizean Ministry of National Security, how they are pushing forward on that. I think that's an incredible piece that's important because we need to make sure that we integrate as aspects of our civil society into our security and defense apparatus."
Lt. Col. Anton Gash
"This isn't a 1-way flow. This is absolutely a 2-way exchange from the UK military perspective of personnel, of experience. So, our people who come learn as much as they give. They get as much benefit as they provide benefit. For example, the UK has recently been deploying a new capability here, which is called our specialized infantry group. And, these are teams of trainers, who come in as 12-man teams, and their job is to work alongside host nation forces, in an operational environment, carrying out training, advising, and mentoring. But, we of course have to learn how to do that. So, the ability to come in somewhere like Belize, deploy out in the different parts of the country, and deliver this training at the point of need with sub-units at operational base develops our people."
This was the 4th annual security conference.
Email
Print