Global interaction, travelling the globe, global village are known clichés nonetheless Global Diplomacy seems to be confined to the Foreign Ministry of each respective country.
However, the magnanimous gesture and commitment of the British Empire to maintain close ties with the countries under its jurisdiction and the umbrella of CHOGM [Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting], certainly fosters diplomacy among the 54 Commonwealth nations. In the post second world war era most of the nations have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics but all are still members of the Commonwealth.
The third gathering of nine Heads of State of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London in 1948 made giant strides towards including all other Commonwealth nations. Subsequently, republic nations had Presidents as the Head of State which prompted the change of name to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and for the first time the CHOGM Summit was held outside the United Kingdom and took place in Singapore in 1971. Since then, the summits have been held in every region, though not in every country, every four years and in 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka was privileged to host CHOGM 2013.
It was with this backdrop that DIPLOMATE Sri Lanka visualized the launch of a global platform bringing the 54 Commonwealth Nations to a closer union connecting with all other nations of the world celebrating their Independence, National, Republic Day and, of course, her Majesty the Queen or King’s birthday covering the annual calendar from January 1st to December 31st.
To focus, venerate, celebrate and recognise the wonder and beauty of each nation of the world, appreciating the diversity of natural colour, flavour and fervour, DIPLOMATE would circulate four issues quarterly to cover the globe. The purpose being to connect the world on to one ‘global network’ platform of people from different cultures, traditions and diversities to meet, visit and associate with each other to celebrate humanity.
HRH Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, graced the occasion of CHOGM 2013 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as the chief guests and opened the conference.
DIPLOMATE, Sri Lanka had the distinction of handing over the inaugural DIPLOMATE Magazine Issue to HRH and all the Heads of Government of Commonwealth Nations present at CHOGM 2013.
Subsequently, the request from countries celebrating their special day in the following months was overwhelming. However, due to complications beyond the control of the management of DIPLOMATE Sri Lanka, followed by Elections in Sri Lanka, instability within the country and then the unexpected phenomena of the Covid 19 pandemic, the re-launch of DIPLOMATE Sri Lanka issue 2 in 2020 had to be delayed.
The change of ‘norms’ and the emergence of ‘online’ techniques to survive, connect and maintain some manner of normality for business and connect with the outside world, while observing ‘social distancing’ gave birth to the launch of DIPLOMATE GLOBAL from the United Kingdom. Its primary focus being to reach out worldwide and connect digitally to fulfil the original purpose of building bridges on a global basis.
DIPLOMATE GLOBAL is a joint venture with Pressman House Publishing Ltd, UK, connecting the world with global diplomacy.