Belize Delegation winding down Business Trip to Taiwan

A government delegation is looking to wrap up their business trip in Taiwan.  Minister Florencio Marin, his Chief Executive Officer and the Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Elton Bennett are part of the delegation.  Love News spoke with Bennett, who told us of their aims and objectives during the business trip.

Elton Bennett, Commandant Belize Coast Guard: “I’m currently in Taiwan. I’m accompanying the Minister of National Defense and Border Security, the CEO as well and a small team from the Ministry of Finance. So we’re here in Taiwan for one week doing a broad range of defense engagement and looking for opportunities to improve and increase the scope of the cooperation between Belize and Taiwan. For years other sectors in Belize have benefited from the relationship with Taiwan that’s the agricultural sector, education and so forth. It’s only very recent that the military has really had the opportunity to tap into the opportunities offered by Taiwan and we’re here to expand on those opportunities. We currently have officers training here in Taiwan. There are five members of the Belize Coast Guard currently in Taiwan undergoing some form of training and we want to expand that. Last year, the Ministry of Defense signed memorandum of understanding with the Ocean Affairs Council in Taiwan and we’re here to commit to that memorandum of understanding and to see where we can advance those initiatives in terms of defense engagement, looking at opportunities for acquisition of equipment. And we’ve had the opportunity to visit a couple shipyards here in Taiwan and look at the expertise that currently exists in shipbuilding. We’re looking at the exchange of information, how to improve our operations in Belize. So it’s a very broad range. We’re looking at different technology unmanned air vehicle is one of the areas that we’re very interested in, different technologies available in Taiwan. We’ve had the opportunity to look at how Taiwan secures itself in terms of its broad national security apparatus and how defense fits into that. So it’s a very compact schedule. We’ve had opportunities to look at different aspects of the Taiwanese defense enterprise.”