Above: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CARICOM Ministers at the launch of the Caribbean Security Initiative (Photo: US Department of State)

Guyana will be hosting the Second Meeting of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Commission Thursday and Friday at the Guyana International Conference Center in Liliendaal.

The forum will feature participants from the CARICOM region, the US and the Dominican Republic.

The CBSI was crafted bilaterally by CARICOM and the US government after decisions taken at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in 2009.

At that summit, US President Barack Obama said the US intended to pursue a security partnership with the Caribbean, and the two parties have met several times in the interim to develop that goal.

As it pertains to Guyana, the agreement will help build capacity in financial investigation and provide the Guyana Revenue Authority with the ability to track illegal inflows and “dirty money.”

Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US would be funding $77 million towards the CBSI, an increase of 70 percent over the previous year.