What is happening in the foreign ministry?
Courtesy New Age 1/5/09
Confirmed and unconfirmed reports do not suggest that the foreign ministry is performing that well. The foreign minister, who embarrassed herself and the nation during the visit of the Indian foreign minister with the faux pas on the question on ‘buffer state’, has now embarrassed herself, her ministry, her prime minister and the Saudis by her eagerness to claim a first for her prime minister. In claiming that Sheikh Hasina’s meeting with the Saudi King was the first by a
The post of
In this policy or lack of one, the BCS (FA) cadre officers are being treated most summarily. Whenever a foreign secretary has been sent abroad, he has usually gone to a post of his choice in the
The foreign minister is very quickly turning out to be a big disappointment for her priority seems to be is to make the prime minister happy as one can easily conclude by the faux pas she made over the credit she has given Sheikh Hasina for being the ‘first’ prime minister to meet the Saudi King in seven years. The state minister for foreign affairs, not to be overshadowed by his boss, took pride that the Saudi King addressed her as ‘sister’ as if this is rare for a Saudi king to do. If either had even the rudimentary grooming in conducting diplomacy, he/she would have known that on common sense both statements were wrong. A foreign minister with some knowledge of diplomatic norms would have known that one cannot please one’s boss in conduct of foreign relations where a foreign head of state is involved without checking facts. Her error is not a simple one; it has embarrassed
In the context of the present day world, a nation can either make or break on its understanding of the forces of international politics. In dealing across national frontiers, it is imperative that a country has a good foreign policy and a mechanism for conducting its external relations. In
I don’t think the foreign ministry has ever been in such a pitiable state of affairs as it is today. To me, the way things are being allowed to be in this important ministry signifies more than anything else that our governance level is sliding and all the talk about Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh are to take us for a ride.
Rashed Ahmed
Gulshan,
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