Above: Bahamian Agriculture Minister Lawrence Cartwright, National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest and US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano have a brief conversation during a reception at Atlantis on Wednesday (BIS photo/Kristaan Ingraham)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Bahamas is hosting the second Caribbean-United States Security Cooperation Dialogue this week, with a US delegation led by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

It is the second Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Dialogue, following a similar event in May 2010 in Washington.

“We had the opportunity [at that dialogue] to serve on the Working Group related to Maritime and Aerial Domain Security, which is very important from our point of view, considering the challenges we have that relate to illicit trafficking, whether it be small arms, drugs or migrants, and so those are areas that we are very focused on,” Turnquest said.

The dialogue is a high-level meeting involving Ministers of National Security from several CARICOM countries, along with Napolitano, senior government officials from the Dominican Republic and heads of delegates from CARICOM nations.

The CBSI Initiative was first launched by US President Barack Obama in 2009 in Trinidad. An initial $46 million was allocated to the Caribbean for regional security initiatives, with that number recently increased to more than $70 million.