FIRST FILIPINO DIPLOMAT GRADUATES FROM BRAZIL’S DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY, INSTITUTO RIO BRANCO

On 25 September 2025, Ambassador Joseph Gerard B. Angeles and Minister Joselito Chad N. Jacinto Jr. attended the graduation of Mr. Miguel Antonio B. Gonzales, Foreign Service Officer IV of the Department of Foreign Affairs, from the 2025 Diplomat Training Course at the Rio Branco Institute of Brazil\'s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The program is a result of the MOU between the Rio Branco Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Foreign Service Institute of the Republic of the Philippines on Mutual Cooperation on Training of Diplomats, signed on 25 August 2014.

With the program taught in Portuguese, the 2025 Diplomat Training Course took place from January to September 2025, featuring a wide range of substantive courses (Geographic, Protocol, Multilateral Negotiations, Public International Law, Foreign Policy Analysis, Diversity and Inclusion, Political Economy, Conflict Mediation, etc.), as well as language classes in English, French, Spanish, and Russian.

The graduation ceremony was presided by Rio Branco Institute’s Director General Amb. Mitzi Gurgel Valente da Costa, who congratulated the graduates’ participation in the training program along with new Brazilian diplomats, particularly during their 80th year anniversary.

Mr. Gonzales is the first Filipino diplomat to participate in the Rio Branco Institute since its first batch of foreign diplomats in 1976. He graduated along with Brazilian and foreign diplomats from Angola, Cape Verde, Chile, Guinea-Bissau, Japan, Panama, Paraguay, and São Tome and Principe.

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