SINGAPORE: Besides official documents, some personal items can also be sent using the diplomatic bag service, said the Foreign Affairs Minister on Wednesday (Jan 10).
“Limited quantities of personal items are allowed to enable our staff to fulfil their overseas duties effectively,” said Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
“For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some limited medical supplies were also sent to our staff,” he said.
Dr Balakrishnan was responding to two parliamentary questions on diplomatic bags, which are used for official items and cannot be opened or detained, according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The United Nations allows diplomatic bags to be used for urgently needed health supplies for its staff and their dependents in reasonable quantities if the items are not available locally.
The parliamentary questions came after a director-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was charged over the use of diplomatic bags for Panadol and luxury watches.
Gilbert Oh Hin Kwan, 44, sent a package containing boxes of Panadol from Singapore to Beijing using the diplomatic bag service in December 2022 as COVID-19 cases surged in China. The package was meant for a personal acquaintance rather than his colleague in Beijing.
Oh is also accused of instigating his colleague in Beijing to dispatch a package carrying luxury watches from China to Singapore.
Apart from Oh’s case, which is before the courts, there has been no instance of questionable use of the diplomatic bag in the past five years, Dr Balakrishnan said.
“We have a system and guidelines in place for the proper use of the diplomatic bag, and we will review our processes periodically.”
He said staff have to declare the items that are going into the bags, and the items cannot contravene import or export restrictions imposed either by Singapore or the receiving state.
“Like all other baggage that goes on board planes, they’re also subject to X-ray surveillance and of course, any other checks that are legally permissible under diplomatic practice,” he said.
The US State Department said the United States does not search diplomatic packages physically or electronically, as an X-ray would be the “modern-day electronic equivalent of ‘opening’ a pouch”.