Diplomatic Service Employees Day in Tajikistan Date in the current year: September 29, 2024

According to the law of the Republic of Tajikistan “On Diplomatic Service”, the diplomatic service of Tajikistan is tasked with carrying out the country’s foreign policy activities. It includes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan, foreign institutions of the Republic of Tajikistan, and representative offices and institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the coordination and administration of the unified system of diplomatic service institutions.

Like all diplomatic services, the diplomatic service of Tajikistan has a system of diplomatic ranks, which includes the following ranks (from the lowest to the highest): attaché, third secretary, second secretary, consular agent, vice consul, first secretary, consul, councilor, councilor-envoy, consul general, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan to an international organization, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan has diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, as well as a Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Diplomatic Service Employees Day was established in Tajikistan in 2016 and has been celebrated annually ever since. The holiday was created to commemorate an important milestone in the history Tajikistan’s diplomatic service.

Tajikistan was admitted to the United Nations on March 2, 1992, alongside other former Soviet republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). However, two months later, a civil war erupted in Tajikistan, plunging the country into chaos and fighting. Different groups, many of which were clan-based, fought to take control of the government.

On September 29, 1993, Permanent Representative of Tajikistan to the United Nations Lakim Kayumov addressed the UN General Assembly, presenting the peaceful goals and good intentions of the young independent state of Tajikistan as an equal subject of international relations to the international community for the first time. This event was an important milestone for Tajikistani diplomacy, and so it was decided to celebrate its anniversary as Diplomatic Service Employees Day.

Like all professional holidays in Tajikistan, Diplomatic Service Employees Day is not a non-working day unless it falls during a weekend. It is celebrated primarily within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions and institutions of Tajikistan.