Prime Minister Hails Exercise Tradewinds

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has hailed Exercise Tradewinds 2016 as being successful in building the country and region’s capacity to conduct counter-transnational organised crime operations.

He was addressing the closing ceremony for Phase II of the Exercise hosted in Jamaica jointly by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the United States Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM) from June 20 to 28.

The ceremony was conducted on the JDF polo field at Up Park Camp, today (June 28).

Mr. Holness said this capacity building was achieved through the skills training of over 1,300 soldiers who participated. This included exercises focused on areas such as antiterrorism force protection, internal security operations, counter-illicit trafficking operations, dive operations and operational planning.

“Those skills, when employed in the various countries and operational areas, will not only make your countries safer, but will collectively make the region safer,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Holness futher said the event was effective in building partnerships among the 18 participating nations, promoting interoperability, enhancing regional information sharing, and improving maritime interdiction coordination.

“From what I have seen and from the reports that I have received, Tradewinds 2016 has been a success,” he said.

The Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the participating states for demonstrating commitment to regional security by providing troops and materials for the exercise. He also thanked the US SOUTHCOM for its leadership to the region.

“We want to assure the partners here that Jamaica will continue to support the efforts that will serve the welfare and security of our citizens,” he said.

For his part, Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Antony Anderson, congratulated the planning teams for hosting a successful event and also hailed the hard work of the participants.

He said the exercises were organised to ensure it was challenging enough to develop skills for soldiers at all levels.

Exercise Tradewinds is a multinational maritime interdiction, ground security and interagency exercise led by US SOUTHCOM. It focuses on countering transnational organised crime, as well as practising humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in order to promote regional security.

Phase I was conducted in Grenada from June 5 to 16 and Phase III, a key leader seminar, will be hosted in Miami, Florida, from July 19 to 21.