Drug trafficking and other matters, which threaten the national security of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia, were the focus of discussions Thursday at a meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries in Kingstown.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and his St. Lucian counter part Dr Kenny Anthony along with their respective delegations had discussions on the formulation of security policies. The meeting was requested by Dr. Anthony to deepen the on going dialogue on collaboration between the security forces of the two countries to fight cross-border crime.

Prime Minister Gonsalves while not outlining the detailed steps of their plan says security has been beefed up to wipe out illegal drug trade and other criminal activities."The drug trade between St. Vincent and St. Lucia is one economic base of the problems but they are others. They have a lot of thievery going on. St. Lucians stealing here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Vincentians going to St. Lucia and stealing. They have been very mobile getting involved in all sorts of criminal activities and its very difficult to track them down" Dr. Gonsalves said. "We are going to heighten the collaboration and take additional measures to do so" he added.

Prime Minister Anthony says the problem has been exacerbated within recent times by a shooting in St. Lucia and warns that the situation cannot be allowed to continue. "The problem in recent times has manifested itself in ways that can be very, very challenging. Only last week a St. Lucian national was allegedly shot by a Vincentian because of a drug deal that went sour" Dr. Anthony told reporters here."We cannot continue with a situation where our borders are not controlled and we cannot tolerate a situation where we provide a safe haven for criminals of each other's jurisdiction" he said.

The two leaders and their delegations also traveled to the Leeward side of the island to view the unprotected bays from which the illegal transactions are carried out. The Attorneys General and the Commissioners of police of both countries; the Head of St. Lucia's Marine Unit, St. Vincent and the Grenadines' National Security Minister Vincent Beache and Tourism Minister Renee Baptiste were also present at Thursday's meeting.