3rd December 2024
RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
25th November 2024
The climate crisis and gender-based violence
8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
9th May 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Local Elections 2013
Last month Ethiopians cast their ballots in the 2013 local elections. They were peaceful and according to the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) more than 90% of the 31 million registered voters took part on polling days, 14 and 21 April. Local elections here are for electing members of local government at zonal, sub-city, […]
9th May 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Sports Ministers wager on forthcoming Ashes and Lions’ tours
Australian sports minister, Senator Kate Lundy, must be a glutton for punishment. She’s already had to pay a forfeit over her bet with UK sports minister Hugh Robertson about the results at the London Olympics. Now she’s signed up for further wagers with him over the forthcoming Ashes and the Lions’ tour. It was all […]
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8th May 2013 New York, USA
24 hours at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston – Britain has the power!
Talk about feeling energised. As I fly back to New York from Houston, blogging about my time there is a good way to reflect on what I’ve just witnessed. Offshore Technology Conference is the largest energy conference on the planet with over 90,000 delegates. This is Texas after all: ‘big’ takes on a whole new […]
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8th May 2013 Paris, France
The Somalia Conference: Helping a country rebuild itself
We’ve been holding in London the second International Conference on Somalia – the first one was in February 2012. This time, it’s been co-chaired by the British Government and by the new President of Somalia. I used to work on the Somalia problem two years ago when I was National Security Adviser with David Cameron, […]
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8th May 2013 Budapest, Hungary
Saying ‘no’ to hatred
I attended a gala dinner to launch the 14th Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress on Sunday night. The leading figures of the Jewish communities of the world were there. And so were senior figures from the Hungarian Government, including PM Orbán, and leaders of opposition parties. I sat at a table with representatives […]
7th May 2013 Beirut, Lebanon
Managing Contagion: The Battle to Keep Lebanon out of the War in Syria
I was asked to speak at the Issam Fares Centre tonight on how Lebanon can best manage contagion from the growing crisis next door in Syria. Thanks as ever for the input via Twitter. Lebanon faces no more pressing question. We won’t have the luxury of addressing other issues – the potential gas bonanza, Leb2020, the […]
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7th May 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Trade, tunnels, transit and training in mountainous Tajikistan
It’s not called the ‘tunnel of doom’ for nothing. Half-way through the Anzob tunnel which links the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, to second city Khudzand in the north, the cladding of the tunnel is replaced by bare rocks. The surface becomes a pot-holed morass of broken concrete and projecting steel reinforcing rods. Water cascades from […]
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7th May 2013 New Delhi, India
Streets ahead – how will our future cities look?
No-one really knows what the future holds, but the reality now is that our urban spaces are overcrowded and polluted. India is rapidly urbanizing. From 1991 to 2011, the urban population in India has increased from 100 million to 200 million. By 2041, 50-percent of India’s population is expected to live in cities. On average, […]
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7th May 2013 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
My First Ever Trade Mission to Tajikistan
The following is a post by Nigel Peters, Leader of the First Ever UK Trade Mission to Tajikistan. My first experience of Central Asia was when I was seconded to what is now UK Trade & Investment from 1993-95 as Export Promoter for Central Asia, helping UK companies understand the business opportunities in the newly […]
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7th May 2013 Vientiane, Laos
Laos through my eyes – Colin Cotterill
The following is a guest post by Colin Cotterill. In 1976, like Captain James Cook on his ill-fated trip to Hawaii, I set off from Blighty in search of adventure and never came back. Oh, perhaps the occasional Christmas or odd publishing junket, but I knew I’d never be taking advantage of the over-sixties London […]
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