Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis (Press Secretary, PMO) – Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis the Honourable Dr Terrance Drew, and his delegation will travel to Guyana for the Regional Security Chiefs Meeting on Thursday 21st March, and the Regional Council of Ministers Meeting on Friday 22nd March.
Saint Kitts and Nevis will assume the chairmanship of the RSS Council of Ministers for the year 2024 – 2025.
The inception of the Regional Security System (RSS) emerged from the imperative for a unified response to security challenges that threatened the stability of the region during the 1970s and 1980s.
The RSS is vested with the objectives and responsibilities of fostering collaboration among its Member States in various domains, including but not limited to combating the trafficking of illegal narcotics, responding to national emergencies, conducting search and rescue operations, enforcing immigration control, safeguarding fisheries, ensuring customs and excise control, undertaking maritime policing tasks, addressing natural disasters and other emergencies, managing pollution incidents, countering threats to national security, preventing smuggling activities, and safeguarding offshore installations and exclusive economic zones.
In October 1982, four members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), namely Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados to facilitate “mutual assistance on request.” Subsequently, Saint Kitts and Nevis joined the RSS following its independence in September 1983, and Grenada joined in January 1985. The MOU underwent revision in 1992, and in March 1996, the RSS attained legal standing through a Treaty signed in St. George’s, Grenada.
The Prime Minister’s delegation Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Ms Cecile Hull; Commissioner of Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, Mr James Sutton; Commander of the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, Mr J. Anthony Comrie; National Security Advisor Dr Lionel Rawlins; and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Mrs Adelcia Connor-Ferlance.