United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan highlighted the Island’s importance to America as he spoke to students at his alma mater Troy University in Alabama.

Delivering a commencement address on Friday, Mr Swan told the audience a recent Washington-based study concluded Bermuda was “the most important offshore supplier of reinsurance and payer of property and casualty losses to the United States”.

He said: “The relationship between Bermuda and America has existed from the very beginning of this country’s history.

“It has changed and grown with time. As a tiny British dependent territory, we have watched with hope and pride your emergence as a beacon of freedom to the world. We believe in the United States. Long may it live!”

Mr Swan listed connections between the two countries, including:

l in 1610, Bermuda’s shipwrecked settlers built a ship and sailed to Jamestown, Virginia, with supplies that would save the starving community;

l during the Civil War, Bermuda was used by blockade runners to get much-needed supplies to the Confederacy;

l in 1870 Joseph Hayne Rainey, who worked in St. George’s during the Civil War, became the first black United States Congressman;

l in 1874, Bermudian Mary Outerbridge introduced tennis to the United States;

l in 1940, the US military established naval and army bases on Bermuda to operate as the first line of defence for the States, staying there until the end of the Cold War;

l Bermuda reinsurers paid a large percentage of the insurance claims following 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and many other catastrophic events.

Mr Swan, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from what used to be called Troy State University 30 years ago and was voted its most valuable golfer, said as a politician he still abides by many of the values he learned at the university.

“I must confess I am a bit choked up today,” he said.

“I am deeply proud of Troy University and all those who have made it what it is, past and present; and proud of each of you to the extent that I expect extraordinary things to happen from this day forward.

“Each of you has the ability to change this world for the better, whether through kindness or through your dedication and commitment as righteous people, you can make a difference.”