Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

3rd September 2014

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Foreign Minister Bishop heads to UK for key NATO Summit

I called on Foreign Minister Julie Bishop this morning to touch base before she headed off to the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales, later this week. Australia has worked very closely with NATO and played an important role as the largest non-NATO contributor in the Afghanistan campaign. This relationship will not end with the campaign […]

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2nd September 2014

by Peter Tibber

Ambassador to Colombia

Teatime in Sudan

A few days ago I visited a Sudanese tea company. Not any Sudanese tea company, actually. But arguably THE Sudanese tea company: Cofftea. They produced most of the well known brands here (not least Algazaltain) and account for the Majority of the Market Like a number of other Sudanese companies I have visited they are […]

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2nd September 2014 London, UK

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by Dr Richard Smith

FCDO Principal Historian

Wartime in Paris: an Ambassador tweets

Dr Richard Smith reveals an exciting new Twitter project by the FCO Historians In 1914 Sir Francis Bertie held the plum posting in the British Diplomatic Service—the ambassadorship to Paris. Not only did it carry a yearly salary of £11,500 (the Foreign Secretary was paid just £5,000) but the Ambassador also got to live at […]

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2nd September 2014 Tripoli, Libya

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by Nicholas Hopton

Head of UK Embassy to Libya

Croeso – مرحبا بكم في ويلز

Croeso I Gymru – مرحبا بكم في ويلز. في وقت لاحق من هذا الأسبوع، ستنعقد قمة حلف شمال الأطلسي (ناتو) في ويلز. ويعد ذلك أكبر تجمع على الإطلاق للقادة الدوليين في بريطانيا. سيكون موضوع القمة الرئيسي هو “بناء الاستقرار في عالم متغير”. ومن خلال عقد هذه القمة في ويلز، سنتمكن من تسليط الضوء على هذه […]

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2nd September 2014 Tripoli, Libya

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by Nicholas Hopton

Head of UK Embassy to Libya

Croeso – Welcome to Wales

Croeso i Gymru – Welcome to Wales. Later this week, Wales will host the NATO Summit, the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in Britain. The theme of the Summit is ‘Building Stability in an Unpredictable World’. By bringing the Summit to Wales, we will be able to shine the global spotlight […]

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1st September 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

Guest blog: Sir Francis Bertie meets Sir John French and Lord Kitchener in Paris

Sir Francis Bertie GCVO GCMG GCB

Rummaging in my library, I found the following blog-post left by my predecessor, with remarkable prescience, to be posted exactly 100 years later! It recounts a dramatic meeting that really did take place in the Residence on 1 September 1914 directly related to the conduct of the War, and in which my predecessor took a […]

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1st September 2014

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by Peter Beckingham

Former governor in Turks and Caicos Islands

Keeping TCI as a desination of choice

Running along an almost deserted Grace Bay beach on an August morning, it is hard to believe that we have had a record start for tourism arrivals so far this year. Despite the wide open spaces free of people – which would be unimaginable on many of the Mediterranean’s crowded beaches – Turks and Caicos […]

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1st September 2014 London, UK

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by Phil Buckley

Digital Transformation Manager

User research on the new Chevening application system

Hello there, I’m Phil Buckley, a Digital Transformation Manager at the Foreign Office, and I wanted to tell you about the unusual and fun challenges faced when testing the new application form for the Chevening Scholarship programme. How did we test? Before we started the design of the new system, we were lucky enough to […]

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1st September 2014

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

The 37th Governor and the 1st Governor

HE Dame Marie Bashir, New South Wales’ 37th Governor, reflected warmly on her first predecessor, Admiral Arthur Philip, when she hosted a glittering reception at Government House in Sydney on the 200th anniversary of his death on 31 August. She spoke of the debt that modern Australia owes its founding father. She also commended his personal qualities: […]

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29th August 2014 London, UK

Mapping the online conversation of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict

Maps of the online landscape can provide fascinating insights into how they are connected and how they interact. In my last blog I looked at a few of our Ambassadors’ accounts and found some of the communities that existed amongst their followers. This blog looks at the way maps of the online conversation can help […]

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