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Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Part of UK in Holy See

15th December 2014

Britain’s global horizons: international partners and penguins

OATjointmeeting
The Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council, London 2 December 2014

The UK’s fourteen Overseas Territories add a particular dimension to British foreign policy and our world view. I often write in these pages about the global Holy See network. The United Kingdom has long had, and still retains, a global role, of which our fourteen Overseas Territories are both one result and an ongoing manifestation. They are exceptionally diverse, making Britain the world’s leading penguin nation as well as one of its top coral reef states. They include the world’s richest and its most remote community. They enhance Britain’s global footprint and worldwide links, coming with significant responsibility.

This month saw the regular meeting in London of elected leaders and representatives from all the inhabited territories (Anguilla, Ascension Island, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena, Tristan de Cunha and the Turks and Caicos Islands). The subsequent Joint Ministerial Council Communique set out the wide range of issues affecting the Overseas Territories and fifteen specific commitments for Territories and UK government to take forward over the coming year, ranging from environmental stewardship to good governance, human rights to child safeguarding.

The Overseas Territories, alongside the UK’s leading role as a member of the European Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, NATO, the UN Security Council  and other international bodies, ensures that we lift our horizons from purely domestic to our international responsibilities. From the perspective of this embassy, it means that there is significant overlap between the UK’s worldwide role and the global demands faced and concerns expressed by the Holy See. The Overseas Territories, and the people who live there, are an important part of that.

About Nigel Baker

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as…

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy in Havana, Cuba (2003-6) and then as British Ambassador in La Paz, Bolivia (2007-11). In July 2016, Nigel finished his posting, and is currently back in London.

As the first British Ambassador to the Holy See ever to have a blog, Nigel provided a regular window on what the Embassy and the Ambassador does. The blogs covered a wide range of issues, from Royal and Ministerial visits to Diplomacy and Faith, freedom of religion, human trafficking and climate change.

More on Nigel’s career

Nigel was based in London between 1998 and 2003. He spent two years on European Union issues (for the UK 1998 EU Presidency and on European Security and Defence questions), before crossing St James’s Park to work for three years as The Assistant Private Secretary to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. At St James’s Palace, Nigel worked on international issues, including the management of The Prince of Wales’s overseas visits and tours, on the Commonwealth, interfaith issues, the arts and international development.

Nigel spent much of the early part of his FCO career in Central Europe, after an initial stint as Desk Officer for the Maghreb countries in the Near East and North Africa department (1990-91). Between 1992 and 1996, Nigel served in the British embassies in Prague and Bratislava, the latter being created in 1993 after the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics.

Nigel joined the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in September 1989. Between 1996 and 1998 he took a two year academic sabbatical to research and write about themes in 18th century European history, being based in Verona but also researching in Cambridge, Paris and Naples. The research followed from Nigel’s time as a student at Cambridge (1985-88) where he read history and was awarded a First Class Honours degree, followed by his MA in 1992.

Before joining the Foreign Office, Nigel worked briefly for the Conservative Research Department in London at the time of the 1989 European election campaign.

Nigel married Alexandra (Sasha) in 1997. They have one son, Benjamin, born in Bolivia in September 2008.

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