News Releases

Caribbean diplomats in Australian-funded training programme

For Release Upon Receipt - August 8, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad & Tobago – The Institute of International Relations at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, and the Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy (APCD) at the Australian National University (ANU) will host the opening ceremony of the fourth Diplomatic Training Programme for Caribbean Diplomats on August 12, 2013.  

The UWI, as represented by the Institute of International Relations (IIR), entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia in June 2010, and was awarded funding by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), to conduct a Caribbean Diplomatic Training Programme, which ends in Trinidad in August 2013. This programme is in its fourth year, and its focus this time is to provide participants with new perspectives on contemporary international issues, including regional integration, the environment and climate change, as well as regional security, among others. Participants will spend two weeks attending seminars at the ANU, followed by two weeks of training in T&T. 

The opening ceremony takes place at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port of Spain, and the key speaker is the Australian High Commissioner to Caricom, H.E. Ross Tysoe. For more information, please contact Dr. Mark Kirton at Mark.Kirton@sta.uwi.edu or Ms Ekana McAlister at Ekana.McAlister@sta.uwi.edu.

End 

More about AusAid  

The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) is the Australian Government agency responsible for managing Australia's overseas aid programme. AusAID is an executive agency within the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio and reports to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for International Development.  The fundamental purpose of Australian aid is to help people overcome poverty. This also serves Australia’s national interests by promoting stability and prosperity both in its region and beyond. AusAID is strongly committed to evaluating and improving Australia's aid program and to collecting, analysing and publishing development data and other information. 

More about H.E. Ross Tysoe 

Mr. Tysoe is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and has previously served as Counsellor and Consul-General in Singapore and as Consul-General in Bali. Mr. Tysoe was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia for his role in leading the response to the 2002 Bali bombings. Prior to assuming the position as High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, he was Assistant Secretary, Passport Business Improvement and Technology Branch. 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) 

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

Contact