(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Dominican Republic and the United States of America will meet later this week to continue talks on security in Nassau, The Bahamas under the framework of the Second Caribbean-United States (US) Security Cooperation Dialogue.

Scheduled for 10 November 2011, the forum is set to discuss the accomplishments of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, since the inaugural security Cooperation dialogue in Washington, D.C. in May 2010.

United States President Barack Obama had set in train the Caribbean-US security initiative in the Fifth Summit of the Americas, which was held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in April 2009. Since then, the governments of the Caribbean and the US have been meeting to jointly define and develop the goals and scope for the CBSI.

The opening session of the meeting in The Bahamas will feature keynote presentations from Rt. Honourable Hubert A. Ingraham, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, and the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Ms Janet Napolitano.

The packed one-day meeting will also feature several plenary sessions in which discussions will be held on greater regional cooperation and sustainability of the joint security initiative, maritime security, law enforcement, and crime prevention and social justice. The sessions will benefit from presentations by representatives of the CARICOM Member States, the Dominican Republic, the US Departments of Defense and State and the CARICOM Secretariat. A Joint Statement will be issued at the conclusion of the meeting.

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