WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The United States and Jamaica have signed a Status of Forces Agreement with a focus on fighting criminal organizations and narco-terrorists who traffic guns, drugs, and people.
The Governments of the two countries signed the agreement after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Jamaican Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Horace Chang on the margins of the Americas Counter Cartels Coalition Forum in Panama.
The signing of the deal provides a modern and predictable framework to further strengthen cooperation in areas of shared interest, including regional security, defense cooperation, and disaster response.
Status of Forces Agreements, also known as SOFA, are international instruments that establish and formalize the terms under which members of one country's armed forces may be temporarily present in another country for mutually agreed activities including training exercises and joint operations. Jamaica joins more than 120 partner nations that have similar agreements with the United States.
Jamaica and the United States have a history of decades of close security cooperation. Since the establishment of the Jamaica Defense Force, members of the U.S. Armed Forces and JDF have participated in joint training exercises, professional exchanges, humanitarian and disaster response activities, and other forms of security cooperation.
'This SOFA agreement is a message to the criminal organizations in the region, that the United States Armed Forces and JDF are committed to deepening and expanding their cooperation including in their efforts to fight criminal organizations and narco-terrorists who traffic guns, drugs, and people,' the Pentagon said in a press release.
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