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
15th July 2013 Budapest, Hungary
A once in a generation chance for jobs and growth
Guest blog by Senior Economic Officer Vilmos Frigyes Nagy Last week was indeed a special week. On Monday in Washington the EU and US started to negotiate the details of an extraordinary trade initiative. The short name is TTIP which stands for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It has the potential to be the […]
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15th July 2013 Budapest, Hungary
Gay Pride Parade 5 July 2013
Guest blog by Director of British Council Hungary Simon Ingram-Hill Last Saturday was Gay Pride Parade, and the third I have now been on in Budapest. Quite why it is called a parade I am not sure, more of a stop-start amble but a lot of fun all the same. I was there to represent […]
15th July 2013 London, UK
EU enlargement – now for the next steps
It is now a fortnight since Croatia was officially welcomed into the European Union. The cafes are back to normal in Ban Jelacic Square, the firework smoke is long gone, and from now on I will be sitting down alongside twenty-seven, not twenty-six, other member states at the General Affairs Council.
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15th July 2013 Warsaw, Poland
Business is GREAT – Polish companies visit the UK and find a plethora of business opportunity in the UK’s automotive sector
The UK has a GREAT automotive sector. British engineering is at the heart of Formula 1 the leading global icon of motoring excellence and innovation. Over the last 10 years the automotive supply chain in Poland has flourished. Poland is now a well established partner in the UK’s global automotive supply chain. We thought the […]
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15th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Why Britain likes Turkey – and links to third markets
Why does Britain like Turkey? Most of all, it’s because we want to have Turkey as a democratic, stable and prosperous partner. The more democratic, stable and prosperous Turkey becomes, the better for Britain. That’s partly because countries which embrace free markets and foreign investment are good trading partners, and trade makes everyone better-off. It’s […]
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12th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Diplomacy and Faith
I spent part of this week in London looking at the interaction between diplomacy and faith. In particular, I attended one of the Foreign Office’s flagship series of debates, ‘The Jubilee Dialogues’, which bring together leading thinkers to discuss some of the major drivers behind transformation in societies across the world. The subject of the […]
12th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Srebrenica: International justice: Coming of age?
On 11 July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces massacred 8000 Bosniak men and boys in what the UN had designated as the “safe area” of Srebrenica. The International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia ruled in 2004 that Srebrenica had been an act of genocide. My first job in the Foreign Office was as desk officer for […]
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12th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Farewell to Mumbai (Part 1): Millionaires moving forward
The strongest impression on most overseas visitors to Mumbai are the contrasts: between the lavish apartment buildings and the slums around the airport, between the exotic stores selling $2000 saris and the street food vendors outside offering 10 rupee snacks, between the packed trains arriving in the mainline stations and the air-conditioned luxury cars cruising the streets. […]
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11th July 2013 Ottawa, Canada
uStrathclyde and uDalhousie sign Wave and Tidal Energy MoU
The University of Strathclyde in Scotland signed a Tidal and Wave Energy research Memorandum of Understanding with Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia on the 5th of July. (See press release here) In a ceremony near Glasgow, Scotland, members of the Scottish and Nova Scotia governments witnessed Strathclyde executive dean of engineering Scott MacGregor and Dalhousie […]
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11th July 2013 London, UK
A uniquely interesting place to work on digital – come join us
The FCO’s Digital Strategy, published last December, set an ambitious vision: a Foreign Office that makes full use of digital tools to enhance foreign policy formulation; and a Foreign Office that provides its consular services digitally by default, delivering more effective services and allowing us to spend more time on the most vulnerable Brits abroad. […]
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