New National Security Ministers get update on regional issues

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Hon. Sam Condor

ST. KITTS, MARCH 1, 2010 (CUOPM) – Two recently-appointed National Security Ministers were among the participants attending the 9th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) in Antigua last week.

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister with responsibility for National Security and Immigration, Hon. Sam Condor and Dominica’s Minister of National Security, Hon. Charles Severin attended the February 25th to 26th meeting. Both ministers were warmly welcomed by colleague Ministers as the newest Ministers on the Council and were sufficiently seized of the issues to make interventions during the deliberations that ensued.

Hon. Sam Condor met with his CARICOM colleagues in discussing matters of critical importance to the regional security agenda. Major items on the agenda for the two-day session included the Administrative Review of the Regional Crime and Security Management Structure which will recommend methods to improve the efficiency of the operations of the safety and security mechanism; Preparations for the Caribbean/United States High Level Dialogue; CARICOM Intervention in Haiti and updates on Preparations for the ICC World Twenty20 West Indies 2010 and status reports on the Legal Agenda regarding CARICOM security matters.

Of critical importance to the implementation of the regional security agenda is the efficient operation of the entities that have been instituted to undertake the roll out of the initiatives designed to address the security issues of the region.

Dominica’s Minister of National Security Hon. Charles Saverin

The Ninth Meeting of the Council of Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement saw the handing over of chairmanship of the Council from Senator the Hon. Martin Joseph, Minister of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago to the Senator the Hon. Dr. L. Errol Cort, Minister of National Security of Antigua and Barbuda.

Accompanying the Minister was Mrs. Astona Browne, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Labour and Social Security who is the current chairperson of the Regional Security Policy Advisory Committee, which is responsible for the administrative and finance matters, as well as management and oversight of programmes and the implementation of the regional security policy decisions.

Permanent Secretary Browne represented the Caribbean side as the co-Chairperson of the Joint Working Group of the Caribbean/United States Security Cooperation in preparation for the High Level Dialogue scheduled to take place in a few months in Washington D.C.

The United States delegation was headed by Ms Velia De Perro. Issues relating to the security cooperation between the United States and the Caribbean were the main focus of the Third Meeting of the Joint Working Group at the February 24th meeting.

St. Kitts and Nevis Commissioner Mr. Austin Williams gave an update on the status of preparations from a security stand point for the all female ICC Twenty-Twenty West Indies championship matches that will be held here in St. Kitts.

Other members of the St. Kitts and Nevis delegation include the Commissioner of Police, Mr Austin Williams; Commander of the Defence Force, Colonel Patrick Wallace and Dr. Norgen Wilson, Advisor in the Ministry of National Security.