Captain Caprian Borg of the Armed Forces of Malta is back from a two-week training course in the US at the Defence Institute of Security Assistance Management, funded by the US International Military Education and Training (IMET) programme, as part of his recently-assigned duty as the Armed Forces Training Officer.

The course provided Captain Borg with the knowledge required to effectively manage the money granted annually by the US government under the IMET programme. For 2007, Malta has been granted $119,000 in IMET funds and plans to use it to send some 16 students to courses in the US during 2007.

The US has granted $1.2 million to Malta under this programme since Malta began participating in it in 1994.

Lance Bombardier Aaron Sammut was first of the AFM’s personnel to go to the US under this programme this year. He was sent on 11 April to the US Coast Guard Training Centre in Petaluma California to undergo 31 weeks of training in Advanced Electronic Repair and Maintenance. Other personnel are preparing to go as well. Malta will be sending its Director of Defence Matters from the Office of the Prime Minister, Vanessa Frazier, to a two-week seminar on national security at the US National Defence University (NDU) in Arlington, Virginia, in mid-July.

Captain Russell Caruana of the Maritime Squadron will get five weeks of commanding officer training at the US Coast Guard Training Centre in New London Connecticut. The training will include three weeks aboard an operational US Coast Guard Cutter during which he will “shadow” the Cutter Commanding Officer.