Beginning Sunday 31st May military and security forces from Caribbean nations will join the United States, Canada, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mexico, and the United Kingdom for maritime security and disaster response training at Camp Springfield in St. Kitts as part of Exercise Tradewinds 2015.

Exercise Tradewinds supports the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), a U.S. Department of State regional security partnership. Phase I and II are designed to conduct joint, interagency capacity building exercises for participating nations. Those exercises focus on increasing regional cooperation in complex, multinational security operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response operations.

“Tradewinds provides the opportunity to develop and strengthen our partnerships and allows all the participants to collaborate together to ensure regional security,” said General John F. Kelly, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, adding, “Like the other countries participating in Tradewinds, we value this collaboration as well as the awareness and teamwork it cultivates.”

Participating regional organizations include the Regional Security System (RSS), Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Caribbean Disaster Response Unit (CRDU), CARICOM (IMPACS), and the Regional Intelligence Fusion Center (RIFC).