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"Congratulations are due to him. There is a letter that I will send to him, offering as a matter of courtesy and in view of the special circumstances that attend the fact of our being neighbors and the fact that we have their unjust territorial claim to deal with - I am sending off a letter in which I am making plain that we remain committed to a peaceful resolution of the dispute.
“Let us make something clear. Mr. Morales is a neophyte; he is a novice. He has pulled off a magnificent coup in winning these elections and winning these elections so handily and for that he is to be congratulated.
“But he will learn that the kind of talk that we heard from him at the start with respect to Belize is absolutely unacceptable. Belize rejects that in its totality and if as I believe will be the case, those around Mr. Morales will make clear to him that to proceed in good neighborliness with Belize, to proceed on the basis on respecting Belize's territorial integrity, is the only way to go.
“The sooner Guatemala president elect Jimmy Morales realizes that, the better we will all be. We want to live in peace. We want to continue to live in peace. We want to settle the problems peacefully. We want to do so by diplomatic means. We will not be bullied and Mr. Morales needs to learn that right away. Belize will not be bullied. We make that absolutely clear." - Belize Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow 27 October 2015
Last night, we showed you how for the past few weeks, the British Army Training and Support Unit Belize (BATSUB) had been training in Belize after 4 years of scaled back activity.
They left Belize behind in 2011 after Prime Minister, David Cameron and the British Military brass decided that it would cut back on military bases worldwide. At that time, the British were focusing their military energies on Iraq and Afghanistan.
But, since 2013, since Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Brigadier General David Jones have been lobbying the British Government to bring back BATSUB to mid-2011 levels.
Well today, 2 years later, the British Army has committed to a renewed, full scale BATSUB facility in Belize. That commitment was cemented with a visit from Lieutenant General James Rupert Everard, the Commander of the British Army’s Land Forces. Military experts tells us he is the highest ranking British Soldier to ever visit Belize.
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He was received this afternoon at Price Barracks by the top brass of the Belize Defence Force, and 7News was there. He granted us a brief interview to reveal that he was here to meet with General Jones and Prime Minister Barrow to discuss what the new BATSUB would look like. Here’s what he had to say:
Lt. General James Everard - Commander, Land Forces, British Army
"You'll know that our army has been focused on the campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're not returning to contingency and one of the areas we're going to explore is re-establishing our training presence in Belize. As you know we've had about 900 soldiers here this year. I think we'll be just over 2,000 next year and I think that will establish a pattern of activity that we hope to maintain over a prolonged period. And not just training benefit for ourselves but this time doing much more in concert with your own defence force to help develop our lessons to mutual advantage."
Daniel Ortiz
"Is that one of the topics you intend to discuss with our prime minister?"
Lt. General James Everard - Commander, Land Forces, British Army
"Absolutely, I met with Brig General Jones in England when we were across. We had a really good conversation about the direction of travel; he's been hugely supportive in terms of what we've been doing here and I think my message to the prime minister will be that A. To thank him for all the help we've had as we re-establish our presence here and to look to the future we see what more we can do together."
Reporter
"Does this signify a permanent presence in terms of number of soldiers who will be stationed here? Or is it just on a rotation basis for training?"
Lt. General James Everard - Commander, Land Forces, British Army
"That's a very good question. We have this dreadful word in the UK called austerity, which means we do everything, whether be training. We are going to put a larger permanent presence here but it will still be small in comparison to what we had in the past. But the important thing for me is that regular drum beat of training. So the southern company exercise, the battalion exercise and each one of those exercises bring in with it a training team that will work alongside your own defence forces, hopefully to mutual benefit."
Daniel Ortiz
"Sir I know one of the major benefits to having the batsub at its former activity; the air support that you provided for the BDF, will that return as well?"
Lt. General James Everard - Commander, Land Forces, British Army
"That for me is almost a more important aspect of us coming back here. We look at this part of the world; the only commonwealth country in Central America of course is Belize. We've been old friends for a long time. I think your prime minister's vision, which I've read is very clear and we working with other multinational partners. And you'll know there will be a very good multinational cooperation meeting shortly with the US, Canadians, ourselves and your own defence force, working together to carry that forward, to really deliver what you need."
Before heading to his meeting with Lt. General Everard, General Jones also granted the press an interview in which he discussed the strategic importance of the return of BATSUB. Here’s what he had to say:
Brig. General David Jones - Commander, BDF
"This is a very important visit. General Everard is the commander for the entire land forces for the British Army and I don't recall in memory we've had someone of such high rank from the British army visiting Belize so it’s quite pivotal he's here. It shows the keen interest that the British army has to come back to Belize and the support that their keen to provide to the Belize defence force. It signifies that there is going to be greater cooperation from what occurred in 2011 when they had down sized of their unit here. He is the person that will actually make the decision; whatever decision he makes will happen. So he's her to personally see what's happening in Belize, what's available for the British army to do and what level of cooperation can be given to the Belize defence force. After meetings that I will have with him today and discussions he will have with the Prime Minister. We will hear from him before he leaves in regards to what level of support batsub will be here in Belize and what level of support the British army will be supporting Belize and the Belize defence force in particular."
Of important note is that the BDF Commander also welcomed Major General Edward Smyth-Osburne, the General Officer Commanding London District. He was ceremonially received yesterday by the BDF’s Honor Guard.
-- 7 News