MINISTER of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, accompanied by Colonel Omar Khan and the acting Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken, attended the Regional Security System Council of Ministers’ Meeting 2023 hosted in Grenada, on Wednesday.

In September 2022, Guyana formally joined the Regional Security System (RSS) after President, Dr Irfaan Ali signed the Instrument of Accession.

According to a press release, Minister Benn, Khan and Hicken are attending the meeting for the first time since joining the RSS. During the meeting, Minister Benn was appointed Chairman of the RSS Council of Ministers.

The RSS was established in the early 1970s and 1980s in response to the necessity for a coordinated response to security challenges that were threatening regional stability.

In order to establish “mutual assistance on request,” four Organization of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Barbados in October 1982.

St Kitts and Nevis joined after gaining independence in September 1983, and Grenada joined in January 1985.

The MoU was revised in 1992, and the treaty, which was signed in St George’s, Grenada, gave the RSS legal standing in March 1996.

The meeting of the Council is attended by the minister responsible for National Security in each member state or a delegate with authority to vote on matters before the Council.

The RSS member states are Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Guyana, and Barbados. The RSS is currently headquartered in Barbados.