Click to view full size

Amid fears of es­ca­lat­ing ten­sions in the re­gion and the ar­rival of a US Navy ves­sel in Port of Spain, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment has sought to down­play con­cerns about the Amer­i­can mil­i­tary pres­ence in the coun­try.

In a Face­book post shared this morn­ing, the Reg­i­ment said the on­go­ing joint train­ing be­tween the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment and the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary forms part of “long­stand­ing, pre-planned mil­i­tary co­op­er­a­tion ini­tia­tives,” sim­i­lar to Ex­er­cise Tradewinds held ear­li­er this year. The post in­clud­ed pho­tos from a May Face­book post where both sides took part in train­ing ex­er­cis­es.

The re­as­sur­ance fol­lows re­ports from Al Jazeera and Reuters of height­ened ten­sions af­ter the ar­rival of the USS Grave­ly at the Port of Port of Spain. The ves­sel, car­ry­ing mem­bers of the 22nd US Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit, is ex­pect­ed to re­main docked un­til Thurs­day.