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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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2nd December 2025
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14th October 2025
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7th August 2013 New Delhi, India
UK-India Collaboration – Focus: role of big business and academic R&D collaboration to support in international innovation
Continuing our series of guest blogs from our visitors, here’s a blog from Dr Nick Rousseau, Head of EU and International Innovation Policy within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , UK about his visit to India few weeks ago.. My role in the UK Government’s Innovation Directorate is to look at how we […]
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7th August 2013 Sana’a, Yemen
A blessed – and safe – Eid to all
Most readers of this will be aware that we have had to withdraw our Embassy staff from Sanaa until after the Eid, because of security concerns which are now very much in the public eye. For me it is a genuine matter of regret, having spent my first weeks in Yemen enjoying true Yemeni friendship […]
7th August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Talking Rubbish
Travel broadens the mind. By visiting different countries you can make comparisons and learn about how those countries handle big issues. You can also start to appreciate and understand your own country better. One issue which hits visitors abroad is the way a country handles rubbish. I have just returned after two weeks on […]
5th August 2013 Paris, France
Tips for Britons on holidays in France this summer
We are now in the summer holiday season, and an amazing 17 million British people come to France every year. We want everyone to have a happy, successful, relaxing holiday. And for that there are one or two tips which I would offer to everyone planning a holiday in France this summer.
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5th August 2013 Warsaw, Poland
From Hel to Wladyslawowo and onto Gdynia
We had a GREAT day in Hel. Right down in the port, lots of visitors – some GREAT things to see and a visit to a Fokarium. That’s Polish for where seals live. Hel is a beacon of the Polish spirit in the Baltic – a star at the end of a thin strip of […]
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5th August 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Laos through my eyes – Chris Mastaglio
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. I arrived in Laos on a dusty old tuk-tuk rattling down the main road from the Thai border into Vientiane for a 2 week holiday. Eight years later, […]
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4th August 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
‘United for Tomorrow’: Lebanon’s Live Aid?
I look back at Live Aid, and its 2005 successor Live 8, as extraordinary moments where politics and culture came together with breathtaking power. What Bob Geldof and others achieved was not just to highlight the importance of Africa, but to move the needle – mobilising a generation to believe that our obligations to confront […]
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2nd August 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Going with the wind
The UK is one of the most attractive locations in the world to invest in the offshore wind sector. There are huge development projects in the pipeline, as well as the prospect of long-term price stability. With our recent announcements on Electricity Market Reform, the UK is the first country in the world to give […]
2nd August 2013 Windhoek, Namibia
Passing on the Olympic baton to Brazil at Windhoek special needs school
I ended this week on a really high note at an event at Dagbreek School in Windhoek where I handed over an Olympic torch to the Brazilian Ambassador to mark the one year anniversary of the London 2012 Games. It is incredible to think that what we proudly call last year’s ‘Greatest Sporting Show on […]
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2nd August 2013 Athens, Greece
Enjoy the holidays!
I’m preparing for my holidays. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not actually doing any practical preparations. I always plan early, but pack very late. I know where we’re going and have been thinking fondly about our various destinations for some weeks now. But after booking tickets and rooms, I have done nothing except think and […]