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Warsaw hosts ASEF pilot diplomatic training

22.05.2026

Diplomats from 10 Asian and 12 European countries took part in a pilot training course on diplomatic negotiations. The event was hosted by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) at the Diplomatic Academy in Warsaw on 18-22 May 2026.

Deputy Minister Artur Harazim with a group of diplomats.

The training was a response to the growing need for advanced negotiation competencies in an increasingly polarised and complex international setting. Its aim was to provide the participants with theoretical knowledge and practical tools necessary to run effective diplomatic negotiations with special focus on building trust, seeking common ground, and developing lasting solutions acceptable to all parties.

The training programme included classes on negotiation concepts and tactics, including the potential use of artificial intelligence in diplomacy. It also covered key challenges and threats in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific region, Poland’s experience of the EU Council presidency, as well as the role of strategic communication and countering disinformation in today’s diplomacy.

Twenty four diplomats from 12 countries attended the training. The meeting also served as a platform for dialogue and provided opportunity to get to know one another, a chance for diplomats from Asia and Europe to better understand relations between the two continents.It also demonstrated the great importance that Poland attaches to its relations with Asia-Pacific countries.

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ASEF (Asia–Europe Foundation) is an intergovernmental foundation established in 1997 as part of the ASEM (Asia–Europe Meeting) process to enhance dialogue and cooperation between the societies of Asia and Europe. Today, ASEF has 53 members—partners under the ASEM format: 30 European and 21 Asian states as well as two organisations, the European Union and the Secretariat of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). The Foundation has carried out education, culture, civic society, media, and good governance programmes in support of fostering permanent interregional links with a focus on soft diplomacy and people-to-people contacts. Poland has been an ASEF member since 2004. ASEF’s incumbent executive director is a Polish representative, Ambassador Beata Stoczyńska.

ASEM (Asia–Europe Meeting) is a Europe–Asia cooperation process initiated in Bangkok in 1996.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was established in Bangkok in 1967. It is a political and economic organisation based in Jakarta.

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