Ethiopia seeks Indian help to train rookie diplomats

India Gazette (IANS) Wednesday 8th February, 2012

Like many countries in Africa, Ethiopia has sought India's help in setting up an institute to train rookie diplomats.

A four-member delegation from Ethiopia's foreign ministry is in India to take home a few lessons on establishing its Foreign Services Training Institute and on how to run it.

The team is also looking to forge relations between its strategic affairs and diplomacy institutions and those from India such as the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a strategic affairs and diplomacy think tank established in 1943 that now enjoys statutory body status.

The delegation, headed by senior Ethiopian diplomat Fisha Yimer, was at Sapru House to interact with officials there on understanding how ICWA functions and what links could be established between ICWA and institutions back in the east African nation.

"We are here for benchmarking of our foreign services institution and other diplomacy related institutions...to seeks lessons on how to establish it and on how to go about its functioning," Yimer said at the interaction Wednesday afternoon chaired by ICWA Deputy Director General Sarvajit Chakravarti.

"Our foreign services institute will be the same as your institute. We also wish to establish relationship between ours and others' foreign affairs institutions such as ICWA," Yimer said.

Ethiopia hosted the second India-Africa Summit at Addis Ababa last year.

The Ethiopian delegation sought assistance from ICWA for joint research on critical subjects on international relations and strategic affairs, which was readily agreed to by the Indian side.

ICWA also offered to send its researchers to Ethiopia to help them organise events of international importance. It also sought interns from the East African nation to work on short-term projects here in India.