The EU’s partnership with Trinidad and Tobago spans 45+ years. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that has evolved and become more important over time – a partnership of equals that is based not just on development cooperation and trade, but one that is also political and based on common objectives and shared values.
Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, in June, met with an EU delegation to bolster the collaboration, almost one year after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the European Union to assist the country and by extension the Caribbean in fighting the illicit drug trade.
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In a statement last week, at the meeting of the National Steering Committee for the Seaport Corporation Project (SEACOP) Phase Five, Hinds shared – “The project’s activities include the creation of inter-agency units in key ports, as well as the establishment of national maritime information systems to promote information sharing.”
Through SEACOP, an initiative that was established in 2010. One dimension of it is the wider European Commission-funded Cocaine Route Programme (CRP). SEACOP seeks to build capacities and strengthen co-operation against maritime trafficking in countries on the trans-Atlantic cocaine route (West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean).
Head of delegation of the EU to TT Peter Cavendish, doubled down on the EU’s commitment saying, that they stood ready to deepen security co-operation in the Caribbean. Cavendish was thanked for his continued support to initiatives aimed at combating transnational crime, in particular the transshipment of illicit narcotics by Hinds during the meeting.
