Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

14th November 2013 Chennai, India

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by Bharat Joshi

British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai

Royal Visit: Day 3

Yesterday was simply amazing. The visit to Cochin shipyard to see the extent of UK involvement in this thriving operation, including by Rolls Royce and MTS, was a much bigger event than any we could ever have managed. Thousands of workers stopped and cheered, and His Royal Highness seemed to engage with all of them. […]

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14th November 2013 Warsaw, Poland

Martin Oxley, Head, UKTI Poland

by Martin Oxley

Director of UKTI Warsaw

Warsaw meets the World at COP – All that Energy is GREAT

The week sees the world of Energy policy meet in Warsaw in a specially converted National Stadium which becomes a Global Energy summit for the next two weeks. The Emerging Europe GREAT campaign has an action packed fortnight of events and activity promoting the inevitable business opportunity which emerges in its largest sector – seminars, […]

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14th November 2013 Vientiane, Laos

Philip Malone

by Philip Malone

Ambassador to Lao PDR

Laos through my eyes – Mike Boddington

This article is part of a series of guest blogs contributed by Brits who have lived and worked in Laos, or who have other interesting links to Laos. My love affair with South East Asia began in 1971, when I was fortunate enough to be appointed to a short-term consultancy with the United Nations Economic Commission for […]

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13th November 2013 Chennai, India

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by Bharat Joshi

British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai

Royal Visit to Kerala: Day 2

Today is the most challenging day. Two separate programmes for their Royal Highnesses mean that all our staff will be in the field, leaving limited surge capacity to handle any unexpected issues. and weather forecasts predicting the start of the monsoon add to the risks. His Royal Highness will visit Cochin Shipyard where UK companies […]

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13th November 2013

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Opening of Australia’s new Parliament

The 44th Australian Parliament opened yesterday. The diplomatic corps were invited to attend and observe the splendid ceremony. The Australian system is a hybrid: with an elected upper chamber it has some important differences from Westminster; but there are many similarities in procedure. First the members of the House of Representatives were sworn in, either by […]

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12th November 2013 Houston, USA

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by Lauren George

Science and Innovation Officer

UK Chief Scientific Adviser explores energy in Texas

I recently had the opportunity to join Sir Mark Walport, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, on his trip through Texas before he headed on to Canada. Our Science and Innovation teams coordinated his visit, which focused on the potential for building UK-North America links in energy and sharing best practices in policy and regulation.  […]

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12th November 2013 Havana, Cuba

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by Tim Cole

Former British Ambassador to Cuba

Dirty money – tackling organised crime together

This week’s blog is a guest blog written by my colleague Rhys Patrick, Second Secretary, Political and Public Affairs. Organised crime and terrorism are two of the world’s biggest security challenges. They can affect anyone at anytime, from people forced into human trafficking to those caught up in terrorist attacks. And they spawn other illicit activities […]

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12th November 2013 Budapest, Hungary

by Jonathan Knott

Former British ambassador to Hungary, Budapest

Remembering

We held the annual ceremony of remembrance on Sunday. The ceremony was led by a selection of local religious figures from the Christian and Jewish faiths. And Ambassadors from many countries, together with Tamas Vargha Parliamentary State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence, came to lay wreaths. It was a moving and a memorable morning as […]

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12th November 2013 Brasilia, Brazil

by Thais Oliveira

Political Intern

A light at the end of the tunnel

What makes a young person want to pursue International Relations(IR) studies? Enter factors such as personal preferences, labour market, interest in the subject, among others. In Brazil, whatever the main reason is one thing we know for sure, it is clearly working. In times of globalizations and complex interdependence, talking about international relations sounds very […]

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