Sweden 7, Syria 1, UK 9)
registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
1) (2008)

Ports and terminals:

Bridgetown

Military
Barbados

Military branches:

Royal Barbados Defense Force: Troops Command, Barbados Coast Guard
(2007)

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for voluntary military service (younger requires
parental consent); no conscription (2008)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 75,265
females age 16-49: 75,389 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 58,556
females age 16-49: 58,143 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 2,157
female: 2,155 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.5% of GDP (2006 est.)

Military - note:

the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based Troop Command
and a small Coast Guard; the primary role of the land element is to
defend the island against external aggression; the Command consists
of a single, part-time battalion with a small regular cadre that is
deployed throughout the island; it increasingly supports the police
in patrolling the coastline to prevent smuggling and other illicit
activities (2007)

Transnational Issues
Barbados

Disputes - international:

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago abide by the April 2006 Permanent
Court of Arbitration decision delimiting a maritime boundary and
limiting catches of flying fish in Trinidad and Tobago's exclusive
economic zone; joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's
claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under
the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which permits
Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion
of the eastern Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:

one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics bound for
Europe and the US; offshore financial center

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Belarus

Introduction
Belarus

Background:

After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus
attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political
and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet
republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union
on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic