17th July 2025
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
21st November 2013 New Delhi, India
Unveiled: UK-India collaborative industrial R&D programme
Last week in New Delhi, new funding up to £5mn from the Technology Strategy Board which is the UK’s innovation agency, with matched resources from India’s Department of Science and Technology was announced to support joint Research & Development projects led by businesses in the two countries. The UK-India Collaborative Industrial R&D Programme aims to […]
Read more on Unveiled: UK-India collaborative industrial R&D programme | Reply (1)
20th November 2013 Montreal, Canada
It’s chow time!
Thanksgiving kicked off the unofficial season of gluttonous indulgence that will stretch right through New Year’s – assuming that Easter does not count. I don’t know about you, but I try to undo what I did to my belly during this gluttony season from January to September – when the diet mode is thrown out the window even before I reach the gravy during Thanksgiving…
20th November 2013 Chennai, India
CHOGM, and a childhood hero met
Life is – gradually returning to normal. The weight of 400 e-mails in the inbox is distracting, but I’m trying to use the week to better understand the operation. A great outcome on CHOGM, I think. It was a difficult decision to attend, but I think the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary’s willingness to do […]
20th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Cut the Red Tape!
Laws are good. They help to prevent murder, theft and violence. But sometimes they suffocate, stifle and smother growth. In these cases, governments need to get out of the way of business. The private sector is the main driver of economic growth. Jobs that are productive, encourage innovation and unleash creativity will only be generated […]
20th November 2013 Singapore
Developing sustainable aquaculture
Guest post from Ching Heong-Lee, Science and Innovation Officer at the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. A great deal of the fish we consume in Europe comes from Southeast Asia, meaning that aquaculture – the farming of aquatic organisms – is big business. This presents a lot of research questions, in terms of how […]
19th November 2013 Toronto, Canada
Canadian science news: 11-17 November 2013
[View the story ” Canadian science news: 11-17 November 2013″ on Storify]
Read more on Canadian science news: 11-17 November 2013 | Reply
19th November 2013 Paris, France
G8: French school pupils tell David Cameron about their priorities
As part of Britain’s chairmanship of the G8 group of countries, we thought it would be interesting here in France to ask young, secondary school pupils what they thought were the really big issues facing our world.
Read more on G8: French school pupils tell David Cameron about their priorities | Reply (1)
19th November 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
COP-19: Half-time, but not quite there yet
The nineteenth Conference of the Parties has just seen its first week in Warsaw, Poland. Since Monday (11), representatives from 195 member states, as well as civil society, business, academia, media, and the UN secretariat have been submerged in the complex web of the UN climate change negotiations. Warsaw is an important stepping stone on the road […]
Read more on COP-19: Half-time, but not quite there yet | Reply
19th November 2013 London, UKMadrid, Spain
Rape as a weapon of war
Rape and other forms of sexual violence are used as weapons in conflicts the world over. The perpetrators of these appalling, life-shattering crimes still tend to go unpunished. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of victims struggle to re-build their lives. The British Government is committed to tackling sexual violence in armed conflict. This is why British […]
18th November 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A jump forward
I’m often asked about co-operation between Britain and Belarus – what is happening, any good examples, and so on. Some of the best co-operation is in the voluntary sector. I recently opened a seminar on autism. The seminar was organised by a British charity, Voluntas, to pass to Belarusian medical experts and Belarusian parents of […]