The agenda focused on a retrospective of 2017 and the examination and adoption of the budget for 2018.

The ordinary session of the steering committee of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, IRIC, held on January 17, 2018 with the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella as chair.

The working session had the assessment of two main issues relating to the examination of the progress of last year and the adoption of the institution’s administrative roadmap and the budget for the 2018 financial year.

In his opening remark, the Minister who doubles as Chairman of the Board said the session will focus on two main issues. “The context of today’s working session offers us the opportunity to examine two issues pertaining to the running of the institution.

A retrospective look at the progress made since August 03, 2017, at this stage, it is absolutely necessary to objectively evaluate the conditions of application and execution of the five resolutions and the recommendations jointly adopted six months ago. And a prospective look to facilitate the execution of the Director’s action plan.

Our mission will be to accompany through the relevance, coherence and objectivity of the recommendations that will emerge from the frank, lucid and courteous debates of this session with the ambitions of maintaining this establishment at the forefront of our prestigious schools and African diplomatic institutions,” he stated.

He urged IRIC students to be more creative and firmer in order to maintain the label of the institution as a flagship for the training and retraining of diplomats. “I understand the stakes and challenges which diplomacy is facing such as issues of peace and security, economic development in a globalised context and the quest for good governance,” he added.

The Director of IRIC, Salomon Eheth said the institution has over the years trained over 3000 diplomats from different nationalities and will remain a well established institution in research and an observer in international relations.

He further stated that the ordinary session will permit board members to outline fundamental guidelines of operation in order to enable the institution execute its mission as an important link in international and diplomatic relations.