Indian and Chinese officials on Monday began a course to train diplomats from Afghanistan at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) here run by the External Affairs Ministry. The two-week intensive programme, launched in the presence of Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong, is designed to give the visiting diplomats an exposure to Indian diplomatic practices and traditions.
Inaugurating the event, J.S. Mukul, Dean of the Foreign Service Institute, said 179 Afghan diplomats had been trained at the FSI till date, the largest number of diplomats to be trained from any country at the institute. It had emerged as an important centre of training of diplomats in South Asia.
Monday’s event had an added significance as it was attended by Xu Jian, President of the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), and Wu Xiaoping, Director, Foreign Affairs Office of the CFAU. Apart from discussions on the training module for the Afghan students, Mr. Mukul held talks with Dr. Xu on the ways to strengthen intra-BRICS diplomatic training as both the FSI and the CFAU were parties to a BRICS-level MoU to train diplomats.
The joint training of Afghan diplomats is part of the outcome of the Wuhan Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Accordingly, the first joint training programme was held from October 15 to 26 in 2018.
