Department presents updated foreign policy to minister

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday presented an updated foreign policy to Minister Rimbink Pato at an event that coincided with the department’s Independence Day anniversary  celebrations.
Acting secretary William Dihm, who presented the foreign policy documents, said the department had worked on a comprehensive report about building relationship with other governments and international organisations.
Dihm said the policy document helped the department to build and better define its strategies going forward.
“The theme statement of that report is called connecting for peace and prosperity and they are very important words that impact us in-county as well as concern our outreach to other countries abroad,” he said.
“We have this report here which is helping us to reorganise our activities now that the minister has that portfolio of foreign affairs and trade.
“From time to time foreign ministries carry out reviews of their relations with other governments and organist ions and we do this in a small way continuously throughout the year.”
Dihm said towards the end of last year, they started to organise the major review which was completed early this year. Pato presented it to Cabinet which was endorsed and they were using that as a departmental reference document.
“It is an inhouse document. It’s only for our staff and not a public document. In the future if the government wants to have a more public document, the minister may want to table in parliament a white paper, for example.”