Importance

1. Importance of Foreign Affairs

Each country belongs to a community of nations. Maintaining good relations with other countries is vital to achieving national goals through the crafting of appropriate foreign policy. This is even more important for a small country such as The Gambia that cannot exert its will through sheer force. Therefore, managing our foreign affairs carefully should be an important area of responsibility for our government. External relations extend beyond the mere formalities of establishing diplomatic relations, but includes trade agreements, military cooperation and cultural exchanges, and others.

Managing foreign affairs well is an integral part of achieving national security, national economic development, and regional peace through international cooperation. For example, as a small country, The Gambia is at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving foreign direct investment (FDI) due to its small market. However, effective foreign policy can mitigate this disadvantage through regional economic integration, where an investor can easily access the regional market that extends beyond our borders. Multinational terrorism, money laundering, and a range of other emerging threats are impossible to tackle with local law enforcement alone without international cooperation. Finally, poor countries such as The Gambia still receive significant amounts of multilateral and bilateral assistance, which also requires maintaining good external relations.

2. The Status Quo in Foreign Affairs Management

Model UN is a simulation exercise where young people role-play as diplomats to address issues of global importance. It is a valuable education tools for students. Unfortunately, the foreign service of The Gambia is almost like a Model UN where our government where our diplomats engage in role playing rather being representatives of a real country with real needs.

a. No strategic direction: The Gambia's foreign policy lacks strategic direction. The country's diplomatic engagements with other countries seem to be pursued as an end in itself without much reflection on how they further various aspects of our national interest.

b. Too many embassies: The country has continued the costly and pointless practice of opening numerous embassies in countries without any justification as to how their existence is essential for The Gambia's geopolitical or economic interests. Multiple diplomatic missions in some regions of the world are highly redundant given our context as a small, poor country with limited resources.

 

current state

c. Dumping ground of personnel: The foreign service has become a dumping ground for officials who have fallen out of favor with the president or a sinecure for political supporters of the president. Dismissed ministers or senior officials are frequently sent to diplomatic posts even if their track record merits dismissal. Starting with the first foreign minister (Ousainou Darboe) of the Adama Barrow regime to the current Mamadou Tangara, the Gambian diplomatic missions are full of political appointees who have caused more embarrassments for the country than performing any useful diplomatic services.

Intervention

3. Government's Track Record

Nothing screams "foreign policy with no direction" more than the retention of Mamadou Tangara and the appointments of Sering Modou Njie as the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. This is an individual who was an integral part of the Yahya Jammeh administration and has been adversely mentioned in the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC).

a. Misguided Vision: This government's wrongheaded notion of foreign affairs can be found in the Vision statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which states: "To make The Gambia a major and reputable player in regional and international arena..." Making The Gambia a reputable player is an important goal, but it is foolhardy to have a goal of making The Gambia a major player in the international arena at this stage of our economic development. It is a delusion of grandeur that only results in waste of our limited resources without being tethered to reality and therefore does not serve national interest.

b. Countless Directorates in the Ministry: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has at least eight (8) directorates. Most of these directorates are mindlessly created to focus on geographic areas, rather than determining directorate size based on national priorities and budget.

c. Excessive Budget: There is massive waste of limited resources in foreign affairs. In the 2025 budget, more than D 2 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—far more than was allocated to the development budget of agriculture, education, or health. This is a massive misallocation of resources.

d. Rampant Misuse of Diplomatic Passports: The current government has turned the foreign affairs ministry into a reward shop for political patrons by not only appointing wholly unqualified individuals to diplomatic posts, but also handing out diplomatic passports with reckless abandon. As of December 2024, the government of Adama Barrow has handed out more than 3,000 diplomatic passports. There are many so-called ambassadors-at-large, with vaguely defined roles. The vast majority of these people do not carry out a single diplomatic function for the government. This is simply financial and administrative malpractice and likely involves corruption.

4. PPA's Solutions

The foreign policy the PPA-led government will pursue starts with the principle that foreign policy is a means to an end. Maintaining appropriate diplomatic relations with other countries or engagements with international organizations should be instrumental to advancing the geopolitical and economic interests of the country. In addition, the Gambia is a small country, and it is in our interest to help promote a rule-based international order that does not disadvantage small nations. Given that The Gambia is a developing country where budget considerations should be highly important, the choice of countries to have permanent diplomatic representations should be carefully selected and informed by their importance to the country's interests.

a. Maintaining Good Relations: Based on the above principle, The Gambia's most important foreign partner will be Senegal. The country shares a land border only with Senegal. Culturally, our people are similar. Economically, the two countries have great potential for mutually beneficial trade. Environmental or health policies implemented in either Senegal or Gambia would not be successful without cooperation between the two countries. The PPA-led  government will give this relationship the importance it requires, and ensuring that the interest of our country remains our foremost priority in any diplomatic engagement.

b. Right-size the Number of Embassies: Maintaining a large number of embassies is not appropriate given our development context. It puts an excessive burden on our budget, and these embassies are filled with individuals who are not undertaking any serious diplomatic work. The PPA-led government will immediately right-size our embassy network and prioritize the opening of diplomatic missions that are essential to the country's national interest. We will undertake careful selection and vetting of diplomatic staff so as to avoid the national embarrassments caused in our various embassies in recent years.

 

solutions

c. Diplomatic passports will be reserved for only actual diplomats: The PPA-led government will make sure that the days of mis-using the diplomatic passports of the country become history. Diplomatic passports will not be used as currency for rewarding connected people. Only actual diplomats working for the interest of the country will be issued such passports.

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