Foreign Ministry Board meeting eye new national diplomacy challenges after victory

By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Board's online video format meeting has discussed new tasks and challenges for the country's foreign policy after new realities ensuing the 44-day war with Armenia, the Foreign Ministry press office reported on February 4.

Opening the meeting on February 4, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke about the new realities and new challenges in the field of foreign policy after Azerbaijan's glorious victory in the Patriotic War and ensuring its territorial integrity. The meeting was attended by members of the Foreign Ministry's Board, ambassadors-at-large, and heads of departments, the report added.

The minister referred to the main tasks set by the head of state and in this regard, noted the need to actively carry out Azerbaijan's diplomacy in line with the new realities, convey the Azerbaijani realities to the world community consistently, systematically and effectively, revitalize the activities of the Azerbaijani diplomatic missions abroad in this direction, establish their close relationship with diaspora organizations, and other issues. Bayramov stressed the need to attract professional and patriotic personnel to fulfil the said tasks.

During the meeting, the heads of the Foreign Ministry departments provided information on several issues.

It was reported that the personnel to be sent to the country's diplomatic missions abroad will be selected in line with the existing vacancies, as a result of an internal competition organized by the Foreign Ministry starting from November 2020 as part of the structural reforms.

The meeting also focused on the ministry's recruitment system based on new selection criteria. To ensure transparency of the ministry's personnel policy, it was noted that in 2021 recruitment to the ministry will be organized on the basis of a competition open for the public. Moreover, from 2021, the existing personnel will be actively involved in various advanced training programs.   

It was noted that for increasing efficiency, a new electronic document management system was introduced in the ministry, the timely and full implementation of documentation was taken under control, several projects were launched to provide electronic consular services to Azerbaijani citizens in the country and abroad.

The participants in the Board’s meeting also discussed other issues on the agenda. It was noted that a meeting with the heads of Azerbaijani diplomatic missions will be held in the near future.

The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops after Baku and Yerevan signed a Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal on November 10, which brought an end to six weeks of fighting. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.