FOREIGN and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers has confirmed that, come next Monday, United States military personnel from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) will return to Trinidad as part of a joint military training exercise with the TT Defence Force, declaring: "steel sharpens steel!"

The impending return of US troops to these shores comes on the heel – only a month ago – of a similar training exercise, again with the MEU, which saw American warship the USS Gravely sailing into Port of Spain on October 26. It stayed in Trinidad for just under a week.

That training exercise was heavily criticised by the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in Venezuela which accused the TT government of fomenting the possibility of war between the US and Venezuela.