(Left) Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Anthony Hylton, chats with Director of Protocol, Sandra Grant-Griffiths, at the ministry's reception for foreign diplomats held as a part of Diplomats Week celebrations. The reception was held at the Jamaica Pegasus on Monday.
(Right:) Honorary Consul to Greece, Garth Scott (left), jokes with fellow consul Chris Issa (Slovakia) and Stephen Wedderburn, group technical director at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

(Left:) Chinese Ambassador Chen Jinghua (left) in conversation with Mirjan Mladineo, Croatian Ambassador, and her husband Marko.
(Right:) Trinidad and Tobago High Commissioner, Yvonne Gittens-Jospeh, greets colleagues, Prasad Kariyawasam (centre), Sri Lankan ambassador, and Rezlan Jenie, ambassador of Indonesia. - Photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

There were so many flags and foreign languages on show at the Jamaica Pegasus on Monday, it could have been mistaken for a United Nations conference.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade hosted a reception for foreign diplomats visiting as part of Diplomats Week.

It's been going for close to a decade now. Diplomats Week sees the mingling and mixing of foreign heads of missions with their Jamaican consular colleagues.

But the week is not only about cocktail receptions and dinners.

The diplomats meet with members of the Jamaican business community, policymakers and the public and private sector.

'Stepping out'

Monday was also one of the first real opportunities for the fairly new resident ambassadors and high commissioners to 'step out'.

Guests included German Ambassador Volker Schlegel and wife, Gabrielle, Irish Ambassador Declan Kelly and wife, Anne, Indian High Commissioner Shri Kailash Agrawal, Argentine Ambassador José Pino, Colombian Ambassador Dr. Kent Francis and wife, Cecelia, E. Courtenay Rattray,Shorna-Kay Richards, Wilton Dyer and Ueli Bangerter.