Border protection enhanced with commissioning of 3 Coast Guard vessels – Chang
KINGSTON, Jamaica— National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, has said that the commissioning into service of three Jamaica Defence Force [JDF] Coast Guard vessels, will further strengthen the country’s maritime border and protect its interest through enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness and Response capabilities.
Chang, the deputy prime minister, made the comment on Thursday at the commissioning ceremony of Her Majesty’s Jamaican Ship [HMJS Alexander Bustamante and the naming of HMJS Samuel Sharpe and HMJS George William Gordon.
“The addition of Her Majesty’s Jamaican Ship Alexander Bustamante will greatly assist the JDF Coast Guard in delivering its mandate to monitor and maintain law and order in Jamaica’s maritime domain and provide a safe environment for establishing Jamaica’s blue economy,” Chang stated.
He said that protecting Jamaica’s maritime space is imperative for national security and sustainable development, adding that “This is crucial to the emergence and viability of Jamaica’s blue economy, which has the potential to be a significant contributor to our long-term economic growth prospects.”
The security minister highlighted that the occasion symbolises, in a tangible way, the necessary investments in the expansion of the JDF’s fleet of offshore patrol vessels [OPVs].
He said: “Our maritime security environment continues to be characterised by traditional, non-traditional and emerging threats. With this in mind, the government remains committed to the acquisition of new vessels, and has made significant investments to that end over the last four years”.
Chang also pointed to the growing influence of transnational threat networks, particularly illicit drugs and arms traffickers, the emergence of new trafficking routes by traffickers engaged in contraband and human trafficking, illicit migration, and illegal, unreported and unregulated [IUU fishing.
To this end he said “We must strengthen the JDF’s capability to monitor and safeguard our maritime areas of responsibility which includes the maritime borders of the country”.
OPVs provide the capability of maintaining a 24-hour presence within the maritime space, where regular patrols on the Pedro Banks have increased the fight against poaching and illegal fishing in that area of Jamaica’s maritime domain.
The minister said the acquisition of new offshore patrol vessels “has enabled the JDF Coast Guard to know more, and do more”.
Jamaica’s national interests and international obligations within the maritime space covers over 500,000 square kilometres through which cocaine and marijuana are trafficked.