DIPLOMATIC SERVICE (Training of officers)

Monday, 22nd December, 1969

Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Labour whether officers before being posted to overseas missions have to undergo any systematic training for diplomatic service; and whether he will set up a diplomatic service school within his Ministry, specialising in diplomatic affairs, for potential officers in the foreign service.

Mr S. Rajaratnam: In general, our diplomats on first appointment are given general training, comprising lectures as well as attachments, before being posted overseas. The attachments are to various divisions of the Headquarters of my Ministry and to the various departments concerned with trade, information and consular activities, e.g. the Trade Division of the Ministry of Finance, the Customs, Marine, and Immigration Departments, and the Registry of Citizens. The lectures arranged follow a set pattern, but, where relevant, trainees also attend courses organised by the Extra-mural Studies Department of the University of Singapore. Advantage is also taken of visitors, from time to time, for ad hoc lectures to be arranged. Briefings on protocol and etiquette are also arranged. Thus the present training arrangements are as systematic as can be, without the setting up of a separate diplomatic service institute. Even then the more practical aspects of diplomacy will have to be learnt through attachments and later on the job.

Supplementing all these, advantage is taken to send specially selected officers to overseas courses such as those run by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Research and Training), and the institutes run by various governments such as those of Australia and India. It is intended to develop further this line of approach.

Since 1966, a total of 10 training awards abroad have been utilised. Three of these were for courses conducted in New Delhi by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, three others by the Ministry of External Affairs of Australia, and one by the Ministry of External Affairs of New Zealand.