Vice foreign minister is non-political position, FM

"The post is not a political position but constitutes a post to be filed by an echelon-I official," the minister told House Commission I which deals with foreign affairs at a hearing here on Monday.

Wirajuda said the post was created in line with Presidential Regulations No. 20 and 21/2008 which constituted a revision of Presidential Regulation No. 9/2005 on the status, tasks, functions and work mechanism of the Ministry of Foreign Affiars.

The revision, which was done to support the implementation of the internal rules of the administration and improvement of the Foreign Ministry`s performance, had been consulted with the president.

The post of vice foreign minister was created in view of the increasing activities of the foreign minister abroad in his tasks to implement Indonesia`s foreign policy, Minister Wirajuda said.

Wirajuda made the remarks during the parliamentary hearing in response to questions from several Commission I members on the urgency of instituting the post of vice foreign minister.

He said some of the 27 member countries of the European Union had since the past three or four years also created the post of vice foregn minister.

During the past one year, Japan and China had even strengthened the management of their foreign policies by letting their foreign ministers be assisted by five and four vice ministers respetively, he said.

He said ...