00:00Less than a week after the U.S. military dismantled and flew out its radar system from Tobago,
00:06Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Besessa may have given a hint as to why the U.S. wants it now.
00:11The Prime Minister was speaking with the media after she joined the Muslim community on Saturday
00:16at the Makkah's Al-Ashjah Jamat in Charleville for Eidulf Tir Salah,
00:22marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
00:24We continue to engage the U.S. authorities in many fields.
00:28Maybe on another day we can share some further initiatives.
00:32Respect to the radar, we were lucky to have it the time we have it.
00:36They need it for their own use.
00:38As you know, they're on another front and they probably need it for that purpose.
00:42But it did serve us well and we thank them very much for it.
00:45The Prime Minister said her administration is getting help from the U.S. with something else,
00:50advanced passenger information,
00:52as the Trinidad and Tobago online arrival and departure card system is now fully operational.
00:58A very important one is what is happening at our airports now with the online entry forms and so on.
01:06But tied with that, we're going to get some help from the U.S. to put into place ways that
01:11we can permit.
01:12When you land, by that point we will have online information which the U.S. agreed to help us with
01:20so that we can know the good guys are coming in, the bad ones are coming in.
01:24The Prime Minister then revealed that a new bill will soon go before Parliament.
01:29By next week Friday or thereafter, we will bring a piece of law.
01:33It's called the APS legislation, which is the Advanced Passenger Information Service.
01:38When we link these together, before you land, we can have a clear idea whether it's a good guy or
01:44a bad guy,
01:45to put it simply, landing here.
01:47The Prime Minister spoke on the matter on Saturday as the Homeland Security Ministry said
01:51that Minister Roger Alexander led a site visit on Friday to the new A&R Robinson International Airport Terminal in
02:00Tobago
02:00as preparations are underway for its opening.
02:03Among those on the site visit with the High Commission of India,
02:06a key partner supporting the AirCup program,
02:09the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
02:12and the Transnational Organized Crime Unit.
02:16The Homeland Security Ministry said the site visit formed the part of ongoing efforts
02:20to expand the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Passenger and Cargo Control Program
02:26to Tobago, building on what the ministry described as the success of its implementation
02:32at the Piako International Airport,
02:35where inter-agency collaboration has strengthened the country's ability to identify and intercept
02:41high-risk passengers, cargo, and illicit networks.
02:45Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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