AMID concerns that the Caribbean could be seen as a soft target for Islamic State fighters, the United States has expressed satisfaction with the region’s attention to security under co-operation agreements with Washington.

America’s confidence was clearly stated by Brigadier General Renwick L Payne of the District of Columbia National Guard during a visit to Jamaica last week.

“We’ve established security co-operation with the entire Caribbean region and we feel quite confident that our partners in the region are doing all that is within their powers to sustain security, not just for the population of their independent countries, but [to] ensure that we sustain security within the region,” Brigadier General Payne told the Jamaica Observer in an interview at the US Embassy in Kingston last Wednesday.

“We are quite confident, over the years of working with the region, that we are of a singular purpose in securing our populations,” he added.

Payne also expressed confidence in the co-operation his country is receiving from the Caribbean in combating the narcotics trade.

“We continue to build capacity across the region to ensure that not only is there a solution for the United States, but that there is a solution regionally… [that] we combine our efforts to fight narcotics and money laundering, trafficking in persons, and all that,” he said.

Payne’s visit was arranged basically to sustain and strengthen the more-than 20-year-old relationship between the District of Columbia National Guard and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

“We’re looking at work that the District of Columbia National Guard has done with the JDF over the last year or two,” he said.

That work, he explained, included maintenance, medical and aviation support, as well as other exchange programmes.

“We work on a number of youth programmes that are resident within the District of Columbia and had meetings with Brigadier [Rocky] Meade on how we run those programmes and how they contribute to the greater good of the citizens of the District of Columbia. So we’ve had these exchanges on an ongoing basis for the last 10/15 years or so,” said Payne, who is also the DC National Guard’s adjutant general, Joint Force Headquarters.

Payne was particularly happy about the progress of a non-commissioned officer professional growth and officer development programme involving both military organisations.

He said that the programme, under which JDF members attend professional development schools in the US, bears significant fruit for the District of Columbia, the JDF, and for Jamaicans.

Payne and his colleagues, Lieutenant Colonel Brian ‘Bruno’ Harris and Major Baron K Mason, were full of praise for the JDF, describing them as “consummate professionals”.

“They’re a leader in the region in terms of how they acquit themselves at the professional development schools in the US,” said Lieutenant Colonel Harris.

“Our relationship is awesome,” added Major Mason, who is based at the US Embassy in Kingston and serves as liaison between the District of Columbia National Guard and the JDF.