WE FEEL OBLIGED to criticize, even venomously, where necessary due to systemic errors and business as usual that keep this nation backward. Likewise, when we see innovation and progress, we must, as patriotic citizens, cheer up, laud and celebrate, no matter which political party is in power. Today, because of what we see and hear at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, particularly from the revealing and electrifying Senate hearing featuring the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and because of the aggressive and beneficial foreign policy trajectory embarked upon by the team of international diplomatic czars at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we feel obliged to tender our heartfelt salutations and commendations to the leadership of Sara Beysolow-Nyanti for great works in under two years of service.
THE NEARLY THREE hours of exchanges of March 18, 2025 between the Foreign Affairs Ministry team and the Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Intelligence clearly brought out from obscurity to the glow of public enlightenment serious thinking, engagements and reform efforts being put into the country’s diplomatic and foreign relations ecosystem. The Beysolow team that also include Deputy for Administration Gabriel Sele, Director General for the Department of Passports and Diplomatic Intelligence, Director General for Foreign Service Institute Reginald Goodridge, Assistant Minister for Legal, Rosetta Jarkollie, Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration Ibrahim Nyei, is doing pretty good. And they surely need not just pats on their back but a groundswell of support from every well-meaning Liberian, particularly the National Legislature.
IT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, for instance, to say that Liberia’s low moral in the world’s diplomatic cycle and what we would call scanty dividends on its international friendship cultivation is due to an entrenched moribund foreign service architecture, studded by undercapitalization and worn-out manpower that pursues selfish exploits rather than the national interest. It is this cartel and dysfunctional appendix of the Liberian foreign relations regime, amongst many other things, that the Beysolow team is apparently uprooting and sanitizing. Briefing the Senate Committees, which comprised some of the best minds in the 55th Legislature, the Foreign Ministry team admitted that there had been concerns from host countries and partners of Liberia relative to the capacity and efficiency of the country’s foreign service representatives. Amongst some of the innovative ways pursued by the Beysolow is to make as a priority the capitalization of embassies around the world and ensure that ambassadors are routinely rotated instead of one person staying on a post for decades.
DETESTING THE TENDENCY of keeping Liberia in the shadow of international diplomacy, the Beysolow team divulged a number of measures including aerating the push for Liberia’s nonpermanent member seat at the UN Security Council and to host one of ECOWAS key institution in our country. Furthermore, the age-old passport and Japanese rice aid mess in the country has been met with calculated solutions. The Department of Passports, Visas and Diplomatic Intelligence to which a seasoned intelligence expert has been appointed, who has exposed the department to technical and professional upgrade through training being provided by international partners. Liberian passports are slated to be CAO-CECADE complaint, whereby our passports are now being verified at various ports of entry through an automated system.
REGARDING THE JAPANESE rice aid debacle, the Beysolow team has taken revolutionary stance, setting up a special secretariat and informing the Japanese embassy near Monrovia that the Secretariat would now regularly report to the Deputy Minister for International Cooperation. There is also a steering committee that is chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that includes the Ministry of State, the Ministry of Finance, the PPCC and LACE, to improve transparency and accountability of the Japanese rice.
EQUALLY, IF NOT more importantly, is the Foreign Ministry’s quest to treat as an almost priority the acceleration and strengthening of what is called “economic diplomacy” under which the Ministry is to help the National Investment Commission and others that are responsible to attract foreign direct investment. They also have cut a corner in handling with sustainable solution the saga of suffering Liberian foreign students, with emphasis on those in Morocco. And on concerns about Liberia being listed on US government visa restriction, the head of the team, Ambassador Beysolow said: “Succinctly, we asked the US Government to look into it. That demarche has been issued. We look forward to hearing from the US in relation to that.”
WITH ALL THESE critical breakthroughs being made in the Liberian foreign service regime, despite the complexity and fluidity of contemporary world diplomacy and geopolitics, we think the team under two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sufficiently leapfrogged and is well on its way to restoring and maximizing our country’s place in the comity of nations, and this deserves commendations than fury and gimmicks against them.
FOR US, WE are impressed with their progress, and herewith tender our kudos!