Guyana joins Barbados-based regional security organisation

Guyana’s move to join the Regional Security System (RSS) is a major win-win for that country and the seven-member organization, says RSS Executive Director Commodore Errington Shurland.

On Tuesday, leaders of RSS member states who were present at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Intersessional Summit in Belize signed a protocol paving the way for Guyana’s membership.

Commodore Shurland told Barbados TODAY the move is “strategically significant” for the Barbados-based RSS and Guyana.

“It is of strategic importance that we share resources to deal with challenges; more specifically, those challenges that are transnational in nature – drugs, guns, money laundering, etc. The motto of the RSS is ‘Strength Through Unity’ so the strength is in the collective, so basically Guyana adds to the collective,” he said.

Shurland added that Guyana will now be afforded access to training and facilities at the RSS headquarters, including training and capacity building in Digital Forensics, Asset Recovery, and access to the courses conducted by the RSS Training Institute.

Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Kitts and Nevis currently make up the 39-year-old security organisation that is charged with the responsibility of strengthening border security and promoting cooperation in the areas of countering transnational/transregional threat networks that promote or facilitate organised crime.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has wholeheartedly welcomed Guyana’s move, describing it as “another example of regional cooperation and integration”.

The RSS director noted that other countries have expressed an interest in joining the organisation, but declined to provide further details.

“What is to be noted is that there is already some level of functional cooperation between states in the region and joining the RSS would further concretise this relationship,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Commodore Shurland is hoping that Guyana’s membership bid will be completed by mid-year.

“Once all the current member states sign the protocol, then the next step would be for correspondence from my office to the President of Guyana. The process would then be for Guyana to complete the Instrument of Accession. The Instrument of Accession, once the matter has been agreed in the Parliament of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, would then have to be deposited here in Barbados. This is as a consequence of Barbados being the headquarters of the Regional Security System. It is anticipated that this will be completed before mid-2022,” he explained. (SD)