 Sailors and maritime professionals participate in a four-day conference to prepare for one of the largest U.S. naval forces exercises in the region. The U.S. teams up with the European and African nations to discuss objectives for this year's exercise Cutlass Express. Cutlass Express 13 is a maritime safety and security exercise that's regionally focused in East Africa. So we have countries from Djibouti down to South Africa involved. Twelve nations and four international organizations plan to participate and aid one another in the exercise, which will focus on addressing common security issues through information sharing and coordinated operations. Through this exercise, we will also test our effectiveness, whether what the procedures that we are following are very good or whether we have to improve. This partnership is very good and it brings about a team spirit and at the same time it provides a bond between our country. The conference will take feedback from previous exercises to determine the objectives for the next couple of years. Participants bring forward their individual country's goals to the conference and then together determine the essential objectives. It has been a very good experience. Now in this conference, we are giving them the objectives for the year. For this year, 2013 and also for 2014, what we expect, what is the training that we want. This is very important in terms of, it will enhance our training in terms of combating and combating the illicit trafficking and the piracy threats in our region. This conference is the first of three, so participants still have additional information to address before the next Cutlass Express exercise commences in November. Seaman Erika Yellen, Naples, Italy.