Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday she held discussions with United States President Barack Obama about partnering with the Caribbean region for the procurement of fast patrol vessels.
She was speaking at the VIP Lounge of Piarco International Airport upon her return from Colombia where she attended the Sixth Summit of the Americas, and from Panama where she made an official visit.
Persad-Bissessar said she asked Obama to look at a map where she pointed out to him that the islands of the Caricom region were like "stepping stones" leading up to North America.
The Manning administration previously had ordered 3 Offshore Patrol Vessels valued at over 1 billion TT dollars to do a similar job . Kamla's administration subsequently cancelled that deal. , which in my opinion was the right thing to do : The country could nto afford to spend and upkeep such ships in the present economic climate.
The ships were also overkill for the job they needed to do :
http://www.baesystems.com/
"The Offshore Patrol Vessel is a highly versatile
ship, designed to perform Economic Exclusion
Zone management roles, including the provision
of maritime security to coastal areas and
effective disaster relief."
The exclusive economic zone is 200 miles as per the UN treaty . Our zone is contigous with venezuela , guyana , Greneda and Barbados so it is much smaller than 200 miles. The specified range of this class of ship is 5500 miles. Completely unecessary
The 3 OPVs would have cost over 1 billion and required millions in maintenence per year. We are getting a full refund for the OPVs and maybe even damages for BAE system's failure to deliver the contract on time.
We could not afford the OPVs given the state of the economy.
Ships the class of those OPVs are really meant to patrol the 200 mile Exclusive economic zone ( UNCLOS) that states have rights to. Trinidad and tobago has a tiny strip of sea to patrol- those ships were excessive for our needs.
If we partner wtih the rest of CARICOM they will help foot the bill and border security will be more effective.
"The United States, said Persad-Bissessar, has allocated US$130 million for system security and safety in the region, however, she noted this money would go through as a sieve and be lost. "
The US will help us pay for these patrol boats as it is in their best interest to prevent drug shipments from the caribbean to Florida/new york.
A large number of fast, cheap patrol boats that can dock across CARICOM would do a better job of border security and drug interdiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment