FM Fonseca Underscores Importance of Sarstoon FOB  

According to Foreign Minister Fonseca, it is important to maintain military presence at the Sarstoon FOB so as to deter illegal activity, including encroachment and drug trafficking.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

”It’s been a very rewarding experience, you know, it’s something I certainly wanted to do. As you said, I took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade on January first, and obviously, our territorial sovereignty is a priority issue for us at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  So it was absolutely important for me to engaged with the Ministry of National Security and Border Defense and arrange this visit to the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base.  You know, I talk about it all the time when I meet with our counterparts and when I attend any function where we have to speak on behalf of Belize.  I talk about the importance of the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base.  So I am very happy I was able to come here today, I had a very good briefing from the officers who are stationed here about the importance of the work that they are doing here.  It’s about, first and foremost, establishing a presence, a military presence here, making a very clear presence that this is Belizean territory.  But also, it’s about protecting our territory, our waters, our terrain, from illegal encroachments, illegal fishing, drug trafficking.  So this is a very, very important base and my message to them today was that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is here to support the work of our Belize Defense Force.”