Higher Standards Introduced for Diplomatic Service

In what NBCentralAsia observers say is a much-needed move, Kyrgyzstan has changed its recruitment policy for the diplomatic service in an effort to root out incompetence.



On July 31 President Bakiev signed a decree aimed at improving professional standards in the diplomatic service. All diplomats will now have to work at the foreign ministry for at least two years before they can be posted abroad.



Previously, candidates for senior diplomatic posts only needed to have a degree and some specialist area of knowledge, but under the new regulations they will also have to know the language of the country they are posted to, and must have diplomatic and experience in public or political life.



Almaz Esenaliev, a counsellor in the foreign ministry’s department for relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States, is convinced that these changes will improve Kyrgyzstan’s diplomatic effort abroad.



Political analyst Marat Kazakpaev says it is about time Kyrgyzstan introduced basic skill requirements for its diplomats.



“It’s a very timely document,” he said. “The standards it sets out are generally-accepted ones which, unfortunately, have not taken root in the Kyrgyz diplomatic service.”



NBCentralAsia political analyst Mars Sariev said the country’s foreign missions have performed under par because of the poor selection process used for diplomats in recent years. In some cases, people with an inadequate educational, work and linguistic background were made ambassadors, and in others, politicians who had fallen out of favour were shunted off to become envoys.



The quality of Kyrgyzstan’s diplomatic service has definitely suffered as a result, he said.



“Kyrgyzstan cannot have an effective foreign policy strategy unless it has professional diplomats,” he said.



NBCentralAsia analyst Alexander Kniazev hopes that the president’s decree will “limit the number of incompetents in the diplomatic service”.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)