The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) had a productive participation in the 14th Annual Meeting of Deans and Directors of Diplomatic Institutions of ASEAN+3 as FSI’s Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat had also explored projects for the Institute from two side meetings.

The Annual Meeting of Deans and Directors was held last 23-25 October 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

OIC Vinzon-Balatbat was the country’s sole representative to the Annual Meeting where she was presenter for the session, “Initiatives to develop joint diplomatic training and internship programs.”

FSI’s proposal to explore possible internships for junior ASEAN diplomats at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and the International Organization for Migration in Manila was warmly supported during the Annual Meeting.

During the same official trip to Hanoi, OIC Vinzon-Balatbat also met with the officials of the Center for Political and Diplomatic Studies (CPDS) and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV).

Training for first-time Heads of Post

As a result of the meeting with CPDS, FSI is now in the process of bringing CPDS’s training services to the Institute for the benefit of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA’s) first-time Heads of Post. CPDS is a London-based organization that designs and conducts programs of professional development for diplomats, civil servants, corporate executives, and politicians. 

The two-day training on “International Policy, Management, and Tradecraft” is scheduled on 21-22 November 2019.

Activities for FSI-DAV Cooperation

The meeting with DAV became an opportunity to explore specific activities to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation between the Philippines’s DFA and Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These activities include: fostering interaction between young diplomats from the Philippines and Vietnam; sharing of research papers between FSI and DAV’s Foreign Service Training Center (FOSET), and maintaining channels of communication between FSI and FOSET.

The MOU was signed between Philippine DFA Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. and Vietnams’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi on 08 July 2019.

Foreign Service Institute Officer-in-Charge Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat (second row, 6th from left) is the country’s sole representative to the 14th Annual Meeting of Deans and Directors of Diplomatic Trainings and Institutions of ASEAN+3 held in Hanoi, Vietnam on 23-25 October 2019.

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Click on the link for news from the Philippine Embassy in Vietnam https://hanoipe.dfa.gov.ph/newsroom/press-releases/284-fsi-oic-director-general-meets-fellow-heads-of-diplomatic-training-institutions-in-asean-3