Embassies, missions news
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Diplomatic sources have leaked news about the intention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah to make drastic changes in the staffing of the ministry so that the period of representation abroad for any diplomat does not exceed 8 years, in more than one country, and the period of representation does not exceed four years in one country.
The changes will also include reducing or closing a number of diplomatic missions abroad, which currently number 106 embassies and missions.
There is no doubt that the period in which we were a superpower has receded, and today we do not need all this unreasonable number of embassies and representation offices, especially with the weak capabilities of those who are sent to represent the state and its Amir based on several personal experiences.
A good ambassador can be a source of income and moral strength for the country he represents, and not the other way around.
The young foreign minister has the opportunity to set new foundations and criteria for selecting ambassadors, and for selecting countries in which we need to have high representation. Having a representative office in cities such as Dubai, Shanghai, San Francisco, Guangzhou, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore and others is more important and vital than having ambassadors in the capitals of many countries, which have no commercial or investment importance for us.
We also need to link the strength of our representation in a country to the size of our investments or trade relations with it. Therefore, we are in great need of having high-level ambassadors in a few countries instead of sending whoever to the largest number of countries.
Some believe that opening embassies in marginal countries, despite the importance of this when voting on serious issues in the Security Council is an important issue, but it is also costly especially as we bear part of the expenses of the embassies of those countries we have as a matter of exchanging cooperation.
We had high diplomatic representation in a number of countries that stood against us when our land was occupied despite our aid and development projects in them did not cease but this did not prevent them from standing by our enemies with all brazenness.
On the other hand, some believe that the future is to Africa and Asia, and we must therefore continue to spend on having embassies in them, but others do not agree with this view and they question the feasibility of having an ambassador, staff and buildings in countries awaiting their renaissance in the future and this may never happen.
We return and focus on the importance of selecting and training distinguished ambassadors, even if they are few. This is much better than having a large number of embassies with ambassadors who lack distinction.
e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad alsarraf
This news has been read 12931 times!
