(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Alimat Aliyeva
The U.S. Department of State faces a number of challenges interms of resources and personnel, Azernews reports, citing the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS) of the United States.
CSIS and the American Academy of Diplomacy invited RichardWehrman to discuss the role of diplomacy as the foundation of S security. He noted that about 77 thousand diplomatscurrently work in about 300 embassies, consulates and internaloffices of the U.S. Department of State.
"It is very important for American diplomats and developmentexperts to establish and deepen cooperation in an era of increasedcompetition and increased global interaction. But the $56.7 billionbudget for fiscal year 2024 is 6 percent less than the budget forfiscal year 2023. The budget for fiscal year 2025 was announced inMarch with a request of $58.8 billion. The bill passed by the S of Representatives last fall, which cut the StateDepartment's budget by more than 15 percent, further complicatedthe situation," R. Verma stressed.
The representative of the department said that the US StateDepartment needs additional budgetary funds to respond tochallenges in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region to him, over the past 20 years, the Pentagon's budget hasincreased 10 times more than the budget of the State Department, the activities of the US Foreign Ministry are limited byCongress.
R. Verma pointed out that in addition to the insufficientfinancial resources allocated to the State Department, there is anaverage staff shortage of 13 percent. About 15 percent ofcandidates have been waiting at the doors of the State Departmentfor years, and there are also difficulties with sending ambassadorsto foreign countries. For this reason, the full formation of thestaff of diplomatic missions of a number of countries isdelayed.
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