Tradewinds to Address Maritime Weaknesses

(ZIZ News) — Lieutenant Commander Dan Gray of the U.S. Coast Guard said the maritime phase of Exercise Tradewinds 2015 will highlight the strengths and address the weaknesses in border protection.

Speaking at a recent press conference that was broadcast live on ZIZ Radio and Television, Lieutenant Commander Gray said the region’s greatest strength is its collaboration with other regional and international agencies.

“We face the same problems in the U.S. from smuggling that Barbados does, for example. I think some of the strengths is that this is the front lines of some of those fights against smuggling down here and for the U.S. Coast Guard, we come down here, this is a learning experience for us. This is your home St. Kitts. We learn as much about your culture and best practices down here that we take home and incorporate into our curricula so I think the strength is the collaboration.that we understand that we are strongest as a group, not as individual nations in the fight against these problems,” he said.

He said once the 2015 exercises are completed, an evaluation will be carried out to identify other areas of concern that will be addressed at next year’s training program.

“When we conduct technical exchanges, we find where we are tactically weak. It could be in boat skills. It could be in maritime law enforcement policing. We’ll find out where those weaknesses are and then carry that into the Leadership Seminar and discuss for Tradewinds 2016 what we need to shore up in those capabilities, in those curricula,” he said.