BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC—St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew will lead a delegation to Guyana later this month as Basseterre takes over the chairmanship of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS).
The regional security chiefs will meet on Thursday, March 21, followed a day later by the Regional Council of Ministers.
The Twin Island Federation will assume the chairmanship of the RSS Council of Ministers for 2024 – 2025.
The RSS, which resulted from a unified response to security challenges that threatened the stability of the region during the 1970s and 1980s, is responsible for fostering closer collaboration among member states in various domains, including—but not limited to—combating the trafficking of illegal narcotics, responding to national emergencies, conducting search and rescue operations, and enforcing immigration control.
It is also responsible for safeguarding fisheries, ensuring customs and excise control, undertaking maritime policing tasks, addressing natural disasters and other emergencies, managing pollution incidents, countering threats to national security, preventing smuggling activities, and safeguarding offshore installations and exclusive economic zones.
In October 1982, four members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), namely Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados to facilitate “mutual assistance on request.”
Subsequently, St. Kitts-Nevis joined the RSS following its independence in September 1983, and Grenada joined in January 1985. The MOU underwent revision in 1992, and in March 1996, the RSS attained legal standing through a treaty signed in St. George’s, Grenada.
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