7 News Belize

BATSUB General Meets PM
posted (October 28, 2015)

This evening, Lt. General Jame Everard and Brigadier General David Jones had a high level meeting with the Prime Minister in which some of the finer details were discussed about how BATSUB would operate in the near future. They were accompanied by the British High Commissioner, Major General Smyth Osborne, and the Commander of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. And, on the Belize side, we saw the Military Liaison Officer, and the CEO of the Ministry of National Security.

The media was allowed to witness a part of that meeting, and afterwards, the Prime Minister gave a briefing on how his Government views BATSUB's return. On the day after he made the macho remarks against Guatemalan President Elect Jimmy Morales, here's what the PM had to say now that he had, in some small measure, British backative:

Dean Barrow - Prime Minister

"There are so many ramifications to this development. First of all and perhaps more directly what the BDF is trying to do here is to establish a sort of regional training centre for excellence; a sort of jungle warfare a type training centre. What this does is to give further impetus to an idea that in fact our BDF have been trying to implement for some time now. What General Everard said to me it will be lovely for them to collaborate with the other national armies that are passing through; The Dutch, the Norwegians and of course you know for a while now we've been having visits and exchanges with the Americans and with the Canadians. What this will do as well is to allow our own Belize defence force to benefit from the cooperation that will take place not just through the joint training exercises but as a consequents of the general broadening of the relationship between the two militaries. Already we've talked about new places for BDF personnel in training facilities in the UK, military schools in the UK. There's also the economic aspect of things. The fact that there will be some increasing additional local employment, employment of local staff; we want to put on record our gratitude to the British military, to the UK ministry of defence and to her majesty's government in general. The benefit that we as a country and BDF in particular will derive from the new arrangement is absolutely to be welcomed, absolutely to be appreciated."

Later on in the news, we'll take you back to Price Barracks and show you the training that the BATSUB is already conducting with officers of the BDF.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize