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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Ukraine

30th May 2012

Ukraine: challenges, optimism and the AUGB

Leigh Turner at AUGB

Can one be an optimist about Ukraine?

When I visited the UK recently I was invited to visit the central office of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) in Notting Hill to meet members of the Association and to give a short talk.

A couple of people have told me they enjoyed the speech and so we have now placed it online in English and Ukrainian. It sets out some of the challenges facing Ukraine; the reasons why I remain an optimist; and my experience of people all over this excellent country who are proud to be Ukrainian.

I’ve greatly enjoyed working with the AUGB for the last few years and am grateful to them for welcoming me so warmly last month as well as on my previous visits to Notting Hill.  Fascinating to meet the audience, too.  Thanks again.

1 comment on “Ukraine: challenges, optimism and the AUGB”

  1. Why can EU not to creat something familiar to AUGB here in Ukraine? Fancy yourself,Ukrainians who want Ukraine to join EU can register and become a member of this organisation. Then,officials from EU can talk about Europe’s way of life,laws,culture and so on. This organisation may have its own newspaper and members of this organisation might have been its subscribers. That will give Ukrainians opportunity to better understand EU. And eventually,we,Ukrainians, will detach ourselves from Russia. If you created such organisation,I assure you,it will have success in Ukraine!

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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