RYAN BA­CHOO

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds MP, has been award­ed the 2021 In­au­gur­al Na­tion­al Guards State Part­ner­ship Pro­gram (SPP) Part­ner­ship of the Year Award, by the Ad­ju­tant Gen­er­al of the Delaware Na­tion­al Guard (DENG) Ma­jor Gen­er­al Michael Berry.

The DENG and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) were se­lect­ed for the award out of 93 SPPs world­wide.

As part of the Unit­ed States South­ern Com­mand (US­SOUTH­COM), the DENG has been part­nered with Trinidad and To­ba­go since 2004 through the SPP, which is a U.S. De­part­ment of De­fense se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion pro­gram.

The US Em­bassy said in a state­ment:

"The award cri­te­ria are based on key leader and sub­ject mat­ter ex­pert en­gage­ments, whole of gov­ern­ment and so­ci­ety in­ter­ac­tions, and aca­d­e­m­ic ex­changes, in­clud­ing women, peace, and se­cu­ri­ty prin­ci­ples. The han­dover of the 2021 award to Trinidad and To­ba­go was de­layed due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic."

U.S. Am­bas­sador Can­dace Bond con­grat­u­lat­ed the win­ning col­lab­o­ra­tion, say­ing:

“As part of the Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions with Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Delaware Na­tion­al Guard and TTDF will con­tin­ue to con­duct mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary en­gage­ments, in­clud­ing in­ter­a­gency co­op­er­a­tion on dis­as­ter re­sponse, train­ing, and ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties which will ben­e­fit both our great coun­tries.”