Burkina Faso's Minister of Foreign Affairs & Regional Cooperation Djibrill Yipene Bassole visited today Institute of Diplomatic Studies in Riyadh within the framework of his official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He met with the Institute's top management led by its Director Ambassador Saad Al-Ammar and supervisors of the training departments and Studies centers. The Institute of Diplomatic Studies was launched by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs officially on 8/5/1400AH. The Institute began its session's year in 1399/1400AH in Jeddah, starting with a management office, a library, a language laboratory, two classes and some offices for other sections. Initially, the Institute began its training session by accepting full-time students in the diplomatic studies for a diploma program. Faculty members and English teachers were selected, in addition to hiring a number of professors in the field of economics and international relations, political science and languages through a contract signed with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). It also selected printing and shorthand trainers. Cooperation with Saudi university professors was undertaken for the purposes of teaching and providing advisory services. After the transfer of the Institute's headquarters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh on 16/12/1404 AH, expansion and deepening of the Institute's training programs were achieved in order to enroll different government employees concerned along with diplomats from Gulf States, Arab and Islamic countries, in order to evolve and expand Institute's programs and diverse divisions, that required the provision of more offices and classrooms, language labs.
