Without doubt, among the greatest benefits of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Jamaica is likely to be the recommitment to partnership in fighting criminals.

That strengthened partnership with Washington, we expect, will embrace not just Jamaica but the Caribbean Community (Caricom) as a whole, especially since, in addition to Jamaica’s Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, Mr Rubio met with other Caricom leaders on his trip here.

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For many years Jamaica and its regional partners — and indeed our neighbours in Central and South America — have fretted about a perceived inadequacy of priority attention by Washington to the flow of guns and ammunition to our shores.

It’s those weapons mostly manufactured in the US that have largely facilitated criminal gang violence in the Caribbean and the wider Americas to the point where US authorities routinely issue damaging travel advisories cautioning their citizens about travel to these parts.

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On the flip side, Washington has long held its southern neighbours to account for the flow of illegal drugs through its borders. In more recent years the scourge of lotto scamming, led by Jamaica-based criminals preying especially on ageing and vulnerable Americans, is a growing headache.

Regardless of perceived shortcomings in the existing security partnership arrangements between Kingston and Washington, it’s no secret that it has very positively influenced the admirable gains made by Jamaican police in recent times.

That’s in regard to a sharp dip in murders and wider crime, and the successful targeting and capture of Jamaican criminal gangsters over the past year and more.

Dr Holness appeared to be saying exactly that when he applauded the US for being “instrumental in supporting Jamaica’s efforts to bolster its marine domain awareness and intelligence surveillance capacities, which are crucial in our fight against organised criminal networks”.

We note with satisfaction Dr Holness’s assertion that talks with Mr Rubio included exponentially expanding “cooperation in fighting lottery scammers, transnational organised crime, trafficking in guns, and building safer communities”.

And that: “We are committed to ensuring our partnership delivers results in driving down criminality and trafficking in this hemisphere…”

Like music to the ears came word from Mr Rubio that his country wanted “to commit to doing more to stopping [the] flow [of weaponry to Jamaica] at the same time as… increasing the capacity [of Jamaica]”.

Capacity-building, as explained by Mr Rubio, involved helping this country to improve its ability to “confront” and solve security challenges “because security is a baseline for everything”.

The secretary of state tells us that a collaborative effort between US and Jamaican law enforcement agencies which tackles lottery scamming and cybercrime will be strengthened.

And he announced further assistance to come including “…synthetics detection equipment for Jamaica’s forensic labs, a counter-gang recruitment programme [and]… software for law enforcement [agencies] here in Jamaica to combat gangs… and we look to do more”.

That’s all good. But, as we all know, there’s ‘many a slip twixt the cup and the lip’.

It will be incumbent on Kingston and partners in Washington to keep the other on their toes so that plans and good intentions actually happen.