Caribbean-US Security Cooperation under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) got top priority focus when the Standing Committees of Commissioners of Police and Military Chiefs from across the region met to discuss crime and security issues on Monday at Defence Force Headquarters at  Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago.

The success of the Merida Initiative, with Mexico and Central America, following similar successes from Plan Colombia, makes US-Caribbean Cooperation more critical at this time, said Director of the Liaison Office of the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM  IMPACS)  Francis Forbes, according to a release from the agency in Port of Spain.

Using the “balloon effect” as an analogy for the potential impact on the Caribbean  of the increased efforts  to interrupt drug trafficking routes in Central America, Forbes pointed out that “if you squeeze one side, the air rushes to the other softer side.”

The CBSI was first mentioned at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in April of 2009 by U.S. President Barack Obama in reference to a strategic security dialogue  which he indicated his government would be willing to engage in with interested Caribbean countries.

President Obama had initially announced a commitment of US$30 million to support the effort which has evolved through dialogue into a US-Caribbean (CARICOM Member States plus the  Dominican Republic) Security Cooperation Strategy.

According to Forbes this is “a long-term, multi-year, cooperation agreement that will benefit over time from a much more substantial US financial commitment.”

Among the strategic priorities identified  to be operationalized in the meeting was the composition of CBSI Technical Working  Groups (TWG). The work of these TWGs will determine the basis on which technical cooperation  will advance in the initiative.

This in turn will give life to the declaration  contained in the Commitment of Bridgetown, signed on June 10 by US Secretary of State Hillary  Clinton and Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic in Barbados.

This committed both parties “to act in concert  to improve the social and economic well being of our peoples,”  the release stated.

The meeting was  co-chaired by Trinidad and Tobago’s Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Edmund Dillon and Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert.