In May of next year an entire battalion from the CARICOM, British and U.S. armed forces will descend on Belize to participate in the annual Trade Winds Exercise. For 23 years, the exercise has been conducted to train soldiers from the region to operate as a battalion under one command. The training is in preparation for a unified disaster response, or for providing military support in a CARICOM member state. But planning for such an exercise coordinating a number of countries means months of preparation. Today that began at the Princess Hotel where preparations for Trade Winds 2007 were underway.
Lt. Col. Reuel Black,
"When you are coordinating many different countries, you need to plan long in advance, especially the logistics involved in bringing all these countries from far as Barbados to here. Well the British and the Canadians and the Americans participation is kind of easy, especially because they are supporting, we need to plan long ahead in order for the coordination, the necessary coordination to occur."
Alfonso Noble,
What's the level of training that they're going to be undertaking, what aspect of training are they going to go through?
Lt. Col. Reuel Black,
"Well the training this year is unarmed combat and the other is civil affairs and the other will be with the Coast Guard, maritime type of activities with the US Coast Guard. The exercise aims to get us closer together as a cohesive unit to be able to work together. It also allows each other to form effective liaisons with each other, knowing who is there, so that we can work together in a more cohesive way."
The conference has representation from 19 countries it will end on Friday.
