Protocol Details of Diplomatic Documentation Peculiarities and Corporate

Protocol Details of Diplomatic Documentation Peculiarities and Corporate Style

Sovereign States as well as some other subjects of the International relations through their corporate representatives do carry out the exchange of the written addresses, reviews and pieces of documentation that make up the actual format of diplomatic correspondence. There are different types of documentation which are used by the State and Government leaders which are put into effect respective to the occasion, topic and subject matter of the enclosed piece of information. Through this communicative vehicle the officials of the contacting parties address the words of welcome, congratulations, put across some new ideas or reconfirm the previous statements. The universal and obligatory element in the exchange of messages between the sovereign parties is the accurate and respectful address with the correct wording of the names and titles of the recipients. Professional diplomats are very careful with all the minor details as it is easy to enter a political situation when the error can be treated as a personal insult. Therefore filling up the cards is considered to be a very significant part of the business.

Talking of the circulated pieces of documentation there is a distinction of the corporate ones which are sealed as the ones of top-secret or strictly confidential. In this regard we mean the reports of the ambassadors to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the messages reported to the office of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers for the decision taking on some burning issues. Apart from the one created for the internal use there is a variety of documents which is exchanged among the State leaders, Heads of the Governments, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and diplomats of different calibers. We mentioned on a number of occasions the significance of information as the tool of the diplomatic interactions. The exchange of the written messages is the vehicle of the promotion of the cooperation which is in fact the integral part of the professional obligations of the diplomats. There are many reasons for keeping the correspondence a flow. They can be related to the formal courtesy address, invitation, comments, reconfirmation of the position, request for the support or special opinion.

What are the basic principles of the Diplomatic Protocol with regard to the exchange of the written reviews?. The answer is obvious – Respect and Politeness. All the written matter should commence with the right form of address that should be accepted and complied with the norms of the Protocol. So, the form of address should be up to the liking of the recipient and accepted format as official people can negatively react to the wrong wording. One should definitely know the details of the person who is his targeted contact. All the addressing appeals should start with the title indicating the status: Dear Sir – for the person whom you do not know in person; Dear Mister Ambassador; Your Excellency; Your Majesty; Your Holiness; Your Eminence; The experience tells that it is better to overestimate someone rather than underestimate the person one applies to.

Complimentary phrases is the integral part of all the pieces of correspondence. Each of them begins with the words like – “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan expresses its deep respect to the embassy of the Russian federation…. And ends up with the phrase like – “The Ministry of FA of the Republic of Kazakhstan is reconfirming its deep respect to you Mister Ambassador and your personnel”. These sort of compliments are common irrespective of the text of the message. This is the legacy of the old days and sound as something out-of-date as the most conservative part of diplomacy. What should be kept in mind is that compliments should stay within reason and be acceptable with the local traditions and realties as words and phrases have different cultural dimension in different parts of the world. The main part of the diplomatic piece of documentation as the text of the application, comment, request or special opinion on some event or a campaign with some legal consequences is the most important part of the document with the reproduction of the reason and the related attitude to the topic in hand. This part should be logically balanced and based on the strong arguments driven by the motives of friendship and cooperation. The letter (or some other forms of address) should contain the position of your Government in a clear and transparent way.

Signature as the final element of the text should be easily identified as something easy to read. As the sign of respect it should be handwritten under the text typed on the typing machine or computer. It tells that the text is original and was created exclusively for your attention. When are the compliments useless? – When a Ministry or an Embassy comes up with the strong Letter of Protest and the compliments would devalue the strength of the arguments and confuse the meaning of the text. So, if there are no compliments in the text your partner is not happy and you are called along for a considerable change of the attitude with regard to your political course or some other issue. The diplomatic correspondence is never mailed off and delivered by the courier service to keep the track of the right timing. It has a strong reason the contacting parties should be sure of the fact that the exchange of messages is done with the authentic and original stuff.

Diplomacy as you know is a very conservative area of activity which is very resistant to change, but still the innovations do come into in the sphere of Protocol as any other area of interaction in motion. Intensive contacts of the leaders and diplomats pave the way for more and more liberal approach. There are many examples speaking for this trend (“Meetings without ties” , Informal interactions and others, Visiting of Sauna and other places of Interest and as average visitors). Nonetheless, nobody has officially rejected the entire package of Diplomatic pieces of documentation which are: Speeches of the Leaders on the key issues of the external policy Memorandums Letters Telegrams Special messages with the appeal as the reaction to some new challenges

There are variety of reasons and appropriate format for the diplomatic correspondence to come out – Presidential elections, National Holidays, Change in the politics, Detailed comments on some new approach or some new initiatives. In other words Diplomatic Correspondence is a very important vehicle of developing professional contacts. The representatives at the International Organizations are the most frequent users of the Diplomatic notes as they deal with a big number of contacting parties with the rapidly changing scenarios of the ongoing events. Diplomatic missions and Consular Posts take up the notes as the common tool of their professional activity. As for the Governments them seldom use the notes as a minor and small caliber vehicle. The number of reasons to apply to the Diplomatic notes is almost endless and can cover all the points of the business turn-over. What are the types of the Diplomatic Notes?

Personal Note is the piece of the Diplomatic Correspondence addressed to someone in person and created by the concrete individual in the first person singular. Personal Note is the obvious sign of the interest shown to some issue by an ambassador and put across to the senior officials of the receiving state. It is also used to indicate some special private interest of the creator of the Note. The personal note is typed on an official Logo Paper with the Emblem of the State in the top corner. The personal note is created in strict accordance with the Protocol formalities and well dressed with the authorized phrases and compliments. Personal note being private can be as formal and informal with the delicate touch on some issues outside of the professional issues. It is also quite flexible with the tone structure of the text.

Private Message – As of the Second World War the new type of direct exchange of the Satellite leaders has grown into habit. There were many reasons for the direct contact of the three leaders. We shall look into them next year when we take up the subject –”Multilateral Diplomacy”. Nowadays the world leaders use this sort of correspondence in a big way to narrow the gap between the discussion and solution of some vital issues that require a quick response. Private messages can easily be conveyed by phone as this sort of communication is well protected security wise.

Verbal Note is the corporate form of address that what makes it different from the Private Note. In effect it means something that is orally expressed, but in fact it is written and handed in to the recipient by the courier or officially authorized person. It is created in the third person singular and shaped with all the diplomatic dressing. It is signed and sealed with the stamp either of the embassy or a consular agency. The verbal note is a very official form of correspondence with no metaphors or other stylistic devises that can drive away the main idea of the text. If the text contains the nasty words or insults it is not usually accepted with the respective consequences that can negatively effect the relations of the involved parties. In the left bottom corner there are all the details of the consignor including of the date and the place of origin

In some cases the verbal note can be forwarded to more than one recipient. Sometimes it can be mailed off to each member of the diplomatic family with the indication of the number of the receivers. This sort of the verbal note called circular. The most common case of the group address is the informing of the departure and arrival in the country. All the verbal notes are issued in two copies – one for storage and the other for the business turn-over. Before it is mailed off it is stamped and given the serial number. Collective Note is the peace of documentation delivered on behalf of a group of embassies. Normally it is a team effort to exercise pressure as a unanimous decision to take up some joint steps. It is a strong diplomatic move – demarche which is carefully considered and taken after consultations. In practice it is a rare move as the reaction for something out of the way.

Memorial Note is handed in at the meetings of the diplomatic officials or can be delivered afterwards. It is put into effect as the reminder of some key issues or comments to the outcomes that cropped up later. The other idea of the memorial note is to put the key points on a piece of paper and convert it into the form of an official piece of documentation that should be responded. It can also be reconsideration of some issues to avoid the confusion and misunderstanding. The memorial note is created on a sheet of paper and never signed or sealed. It does not contain compliments – nothing but the text of the memorial note.

Memorandum is a very essential piece of documentation which is created on some special occasions with the detailed insight into the problem. Any memorandum describes and reproduces the whole story of the topic. It is a very analytical piece of documentation with the strong arguments put forward. It is very often used as the way to carry on the negotiations to achieve some compromise. As a rule the memorandum is enclosed to the verbal note. It is typed on the logo paper without emblem. If it is not enclosed to the verbal note then it comes out with the date, time and the city of origin. Since it is not a regular piece of documentation it should be well thought over as it attracts some special attention and carefully looked into.

Statement of the Government is the fundamental piece of documentation devoted to some vital problems of the world politics like nuclear disarmament, outer space, terrorism or some others with the destructive potential for the mankind and human nature. The Government of the Soviet Union used this piece of documentation in a big way with the idea to familiarize with some special and strong position on some burning issue and make it known worldwide.

Joint Statement or Communiqué is a very important piece of documentation which as a rule comes out of print on the fact of the ongoing negotiations or on the outcome of the meetings or concluded arrangements. What makes it specific and somewhat different is the fact that the creation of this piece of documentation involves the team effort of at least two parties or even more. This is the obvious sign of multilateral diplomacy. In practical terms communiqué is the identification or reconfirmation of the position of the involved parties with the idea of an appeal or preventive vehicle of ill treatment or falsification. So, communiqué is the informative, responsive or innovative piece of documentation. Recollecting in our recent history we can come up with the number of occasions when the states applied to this sort of documentation. Communiqué on the everlasting friendship between Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan of 1992 to demonstrate that the break-off of the Soviet Union was not that destructive;. Communiqué of the heads of the Caspian States with the idea to develop the resources irrespective of the status.

Telegrams is the piece of documentation frequently used these days by the leaders of the states. It is a very swift means of communication used as the reaction to some important events when the leaders can address each other in person congratulating on the National Holidays, birthdays or come up with the reaction when the situation is desperate or critical. The advantage of a telegram is being swift and disadvantage is obvious – one can not extend the topics under discussion. It is a good chance to be nice, responsive and having the possibility of keeping the contacts in the right capacity and shape.

International Agreement is some special diplomatic piece of documentation. Working on the agreement takes a lot of time and involves some gigantic effort for the discussions, consultations and arriving at some acceptable decision. Sometimes we can talk of the arrangements to be achieved not between the two or three countries, but dozens. One can easily envisage the scope of problems with the number of players and respective interests behind. Let us dwell on the procedure which is quite complex and time consuming. It has the sequence of steps – diplomatic initiated by the officials to push ahead; expert opinion done by the professionals to look into the details; political authority to be proved by the state leaders who are to sign it up. Agreements can concern any topic – political, economic, military, humanitarian, legal or consular aid. They can be, as mentioned above – bilateral and multilateral. Some special terminology is applied like “participant”, “third state” and “parties in the agreement”. They may have different names: “Convention”, “Pact”, ”Protocol”, “Communiqué”, “Memorandum” and etc.

They are structured as the following: Introductory statements; The Main part and Conclusion. They are finalized with the signatures, dates and the place of origin. The are translated into the official languages of the involved parties with the conclusion that the text is authentic and has the equal value. It also enclosed the life time of the agreement and the moment it gets into effect. The text of the agreement is typed on some special paper and bound up in the cover close the national coloring of the state flag. The signing and exchange of the copies is done as a part of the ceremony with the involvement of the Mass Media people.