The International Affairs Department is responsible for managing the relationship of the AWDC with foreign governments and international bodies, including the United Nations, the European Community, the Kimberley Process and the World Diamond Council. More specifically, the International Affairs Department has been responsible for coordinating AWDC’s effort in the campaign to end the trade in conflict diamonds, and in establishing long-term relations with the authorities in rough diamond producing countries.
 
The International Affairs Department was formally established in March 2000, from an ad-hoc committee that had been created in September 1999, called the HRD Task Force Angola. The latter had been formed to cooperate with the UN Security Council in developing solutions to tackle the trade in diamonds from war zones. The department worked closely with the Diamond Task Force that had been established by the Belgian government.
 
The International Affairs Department played a key role in the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which was endorsed by the UN General Assembly and Security Council and was introduced in 2003. The department also was instrumental in creating KP rough diamond monitoring systems in Sierra Leone, Angola, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 
The Chief Officer of the AWDC International Affairs Department currently chairs the Working Group of Diamond Experts of the Kimberley Process, which is responsible for conducting review of the KP systems operating in the various member countries. He also chairs the Technical Committee of the World Diamond Council.
 
The International Affairs Department is also responsible for the organisation of the Antwerp African Diamond Days, a series of two-day events during which AWDC aims to stimulate the trade and government contacts between African diamond producing countries on the one hand and the Antwerp diamond sector and Belgian authorities on the other hand.