Speeches
Remarks by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Timothy Zuniga-Brown
Official Opening of Tradewinds Exercise
March 4, 2009
Welcome to the 25 annual Tradewinds 2009 Exercise. It is my pleasure to welcome all of you, including approximately 500 personnel from partner nations around the region, who are participating in this year's events. At the outset, I would like to thank our hosts, the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, for graciously agreeing to bring us all together in the beautiful islands of The Bahamas.
Tradewinds 2009 is one of the premiere exercises conducted in U.S. Southern Command's Area of Focus in the Caribbean and Latin America under the command of Admiral James Stavridis. This exercise is yet another demonstration of the U.S. government's commitment to the peace and security of The Bahamas, the Caribbean Region, and the Western Hemisphere through a continuous program of cooperation among all partner nations.
This joint exercise is designed to improve our coordination and interoperability with Caribbean partner nations on the high seas for the common benefit of all. Our goal is to assist our partners to manage a wide range of regional seaborne threats. This year's exercise focuses on Maritime Interdiction Operation (MIO) and Search and Rescue (SAR) with an emphasis on command and control.
This year's training will also include boarding party operations, evidence processing, and hazardous material (hazmat) identification and handling. Our operational goal is to support increased maritime domain awareness, and better coordinate the seizure of vessels used in illicit trafficking. We know that these platforms can be used to smuggle narcotics, weapons, explosives, and people - whether criminals, terrorists or illegal migrants. To enhance maritime interdiction and security capabilities, deployed enduring friendship command and control assets will be integrated into an operationally challenging exercise scenario.
The scenario will provide an ideal opportunity for all participating maritime security forces to train together while working toward the common goal of improving collaboration and synchronization among all participating nations. The end result of Tradewinds 2009 is improved maritime security. The result, in short, is to make all of us safer. We all know that Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S share common interests and threats. Threats such as illicit trafficking of drugs, people or weapons, or terrorism, affect us all.
The transnational nature of these 21st century challenges, especially on the high seas, requires stronger regional and multinational cooperation. Tradewinds 2009 is part of our answer to that challenge. Tradewinds 2009 will strengthen cooperation between partner nations in the region. Tradewinds 2009 will improve our collective capability to meet these old and new emerging threats.
The U.S remains committed to the strong partnerships with our friends in the region that allow us to train together, to share knowledge and to increase our interoperability. We do this in order to fight the common threats that we all face. We have built our relationships with our counterparts throughout the region based on mutual respect and an open exchange of ideas.
The U.S. remains committed to improving these partnerships during this exercise, and in the future, on the same basis.
We wish you every success during Tradewinds 2009.