President Mamnoon Hussain told diplomats that while acquainting themselves with challenges of the day, they should be ready to face the breaking news culture. He was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the 34th Specialised Diplomatic Course at the Foreign Services Academy (FSA), on Monday. While giving details of the ceremony, a spokesperson said that the president was of the view that diplomats should also show their capability in public and economic diplomacy besides in international law and politics.

To achieve the goal of meaningful development, progress and modernisation, there is a need for infusing fresh dynamism into Economic diplomacy reflecting the current global, regional realities and compulsions. This would mean not only government to government relationships but crucially, people to people contacts and exchanges.

In the 1840s, after receiving his first telegram, then British foreign minister Lord Palmerston reportedly exclaimed “My God, this is the end of diplomacy!” Fast forward 170 years.(...) Diplomacy is not dead, but new messaging tools like Twitter are threatening to upend a tradition of carefully worded statecraft and protocol.

An International  joint statement released by the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, IGAD, the UK and the US welcomed Parliament’s approval, and reiterated their call for Somalia’s leaders and institutions to work together to accelerate delivery of the milestones of the Federal Government’s ‘Vision 2016′. The diplomatic statement said, together with the New Deal Compact for Somalia, remains the guiding framework for engagement.  The diplomatic statement added that it was important to preserve the Somalia unity and stability of the Federal Government of Somalia.

Digital diplomacy is therefore part of the state’s attempt to remain relevant and to assert power in the digital space. And while the goals of any one initiative might be lauded (as this one can), we need to view and ultimately assess it as only one component of a wider suite of digital foreign policy actions. Taken as a whole, digital foreign policy is fraught with challenges and hypocrisies.

During the next training the young diplomats were trained on the topics as leadership skills, effective communication, teamwork, negotiation skills, proper management of the business meetings, oratory, as well as current trends in public diplomacy, building relationships with the media and Azerbaijani studies.

With the shared history of Australia and Malaysia stretching back to World War II, it is hardly coincidental that 16 young Malaysian diplomats were sent for an educational visit to Australia as they complete the last leg of their studies at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR). Parliament House in Canberra has recently witnessed many occasions that demonstrate the close cooperation between the two nations.

A marquee has been erected on the driveway of the United Nations to deprive potential snipers of a line of site, as world leaders lever themselves out of their limousines. Even inside the headquarters building, blue partitions have been put up, presumably to sequester the leaders from the journalists who work here day in day out. With some 140 heads of state and government scheduled to attend, a record-breaking number, leaders' week at the United Nations is like no other.