Rena Lalgie, the Governor, and Michael Weeks, the Minister of National Security, visited Royal Bermuda Regiment soldiers taking part a training exercise in Guyana this week.

After being greeted by a Guyana Defence Force guard of honour, Ms Lalgie and Mr Weeks toured the base, listened in on lessons and saw troops from the RBR and the Turks & Caicos Islands Regiment perform a deliberate attack drill.

Ms Lalgie said that as Commander-in-Chief of the RBR, it was important for her to understand its work.

She added: “It’s really a privilege for me to come out and see what the soldiers are doing.

“I’m already feeling really proud about the feedback I’m hearing from the other forces. Everybody is speaking really highly about the Royal Bermuda Regiment.”

The Governor said: “People sometimes ask about the value of these exercises, of doing things that we are unlikely to be called upon to do in Bermuda, but there is something about building the relationships between the different regiments and defence forces in the region.

“I will wholeheartedly support anything which is about trying to make sure that these international partnerships are there.”

She highlighted that other nations in the region might have thousands of people in their battalions compared with about 300 in the RBR.

Ms Lalgie added: “They understand that none of us is able to stand alone. Setting the interoperability in an exercise scenario will ready us for those real-life scenarios that will happen.”

Having spoken to soldiers from Bermuda and other countries, the Governor said: “They are talking about how much they’ve learnt.

“It is clear that they are learning not just new skills for themselves but how to work together across different defence forces.”

In addition to members of the TCI Regiment, troops from Jamaica and Suriname have swelled RBR ranks for the exercise, Tradewinds 23.

Tradewinds is a US Southcom-sponsored combined, Caribbean-focused exercise designed to expand the region’s ability to mitigate, plan for and respond to crises as well as to increase regional training capacity and interoperability.

Mr Weeks said: “I came to see what our young men and women are doing in this camp and to support them as well as the joint team from the various countries.”

He added: “One of the other things I really wanted to see was how we are preparing in terms of regional security for natural disasters or civil disturbance.

“I found it interesting to see how forces all come together because it’s always good to have that capability before we need it.”

Major Duncan Simons, the Royal Bermuda Regiment officer commanding the RBR company taking part in Tradewinds 23, said that the exercise had presented the regiment with an opportunity to engage with nations across the region and supported regional interoperability.

“The training has primarily been delivered by the US, in our case working with the Security Force Assistance Brigades,” he added.

“With the support of SFAB and the US Marine Corps, we have been able to take on training — particularly weapons training — that’s not available on the same scale and at the same distances in Bermuda.”