St Kitts and Nevis to assume chairmanship of RSS Council of Ministers for 2024-25

St Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew and his delegation is all set to travel to Guyana on March 21 for the Regional Security Chefs Meeting where St Kitts and Nevis will assume the chairmanship of the RSS Council of Ministers for the year 2024-2025. The delegation will also be engaging in the Regional Council of Ministers Meeting on Friday, March 22, 2204.While sharing the development, the Government of St Kitts and Nevis said that the inception of the RSS – Regional Security System emerged for the imperative for a unified response to security challenges which threatened the region’s stability during the 1970s and 1980s. While explaining the RSS, the government said that it is vested with the responsibilities and objectives of fostering collaboration among its Member States in various domains which includes but are not limited to the following:

• Combating the trafficking of illegal narcotics
• Conducting search and rescue operations
• Responding to national emergencies
• Safeguarding fisheries 
• Enforcing immigration control
• Undertaking maritime policing tasks
• Ensuring customs and excise control
• Managing pollution incidents
• Addressing natural disasters and other emergencies 
• Countering threats to national security
• Preventing smuggling activities 
• Safeguarding offshore installations and exclusive economic zones

In addition to this, the Government also said that in October 1982, four members of the OECS - Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States comprising of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines entered a MOU - Memorandum of Understanding with Barbados to ease "mutual assistance on request." Following this, St Kitts and Nevis joined the RSS following its independence in September 1983 while Grenada joined in January 1985. The MOU underwent revision in 1992, and in 1996, the RSS attained legal standing through a Treaty signed in Grenada.The Prime Minister delegation will include Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Cecile Hull; Commissioner of Royal St Christopher and Nevis Police Force, James Sutton; Commander of St Kitts Nevis Defence Force, J Anthony Comrie; National Security Advisor Dr. Lionel Rawlins; and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Mrs. Adelcia Connor-Ferlance.