New Foreign Service Officers complete training

The newest batch of Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) has completed their five-day orientation programme spearheaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

Under the programme, the FSOs were edified about Guyana’s foreign policy, the Ministry’s mission and responsibilities, diplomatic protocol, development and the Green State Development Strategy, among others. It is expected that the new FSOs will now be equipped to carry out assignments either in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or in a posting abroad.

According to a statement from the Ministry, senior officials from the Ministry as well as national diplomats delivered a series of presentations to enrich each FSO’s understanding of the country’s foreign policy, the Ministry’s mission and responsibilities, diplomatic protocol, and etiquette, among other topics.

The Ministry said the Director of the Foreign Service Institute, Ambassador Ronald Austin, noted that “it was a very important exercise in that it was an opportunity for the officers to acquire knowledge of diplomacy. Over the past week, new recruits to the Ministry gained a better understanding in areas such as economic diplomacy, the culture of different nations, the changing international environment and knowledge on how they should conduct themselves.”

At the opening of the programme, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge had urged the FSOs to sharpen their knowledge if they intend to further their career in the public service.

“If you don’t intend to read and to sharpen your knowledge base, don’t stay in the foreign service, don’t stay in the public service either. You make up your mind on that from now. One of your responsibilities as Diplomats, as Foreign Service Officers, is to commit yourself; if not to a lifelong, then to a career-long effort to improve your knowledge, to try and take advantage of training so that you can understand what is going on around you,” Minister Greenidge stated.