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?
15th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Our prosperity
Prosperity is one of the major priorities of the UK government worldwide. We define it not just about increasing exports and investments (though both are important), but we also want to open markets up and promote sustainable growth. Belarus isn’t our largest market in the CIS but, in 2011, British exports to Belarus totalled £125m. […]
15th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Valentine’s Night with the Obamas
Last year I bemoaned the lack of romance bought by spending Valentine’s Day evening with the otherwise charming British Government’s Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. (Of course in reality I secretly enjoyed it. Though that’s not something I admit to Layla.) But this year, Layla and I agreed we would determinedly avoid any event connected […]
15th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Florence Nightingale goes to London
My recent (cheeringly popular) blog ‘Why is everyone investing in the UK? why aren’t you?’ noted the brilliance of Britain as a top destination for European HQs for businesses from Turkey and elsewhere. One recent example of this is the recent decision by the Turkish Group Florence Nightingale to set up its European HQs in London, in […]
15th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
EU and US – partners for prosperity
As Carl Bildt underlined in the Riksdag, the US is Europe’s main international partner, on the security and prosperity agendas. So the UK government welcomes, as Sweden does, President Obama’s call in his State of the Union Speech last night for what he called “a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” with the EU. Britain has […]
15th February 2013 New Delhi, India
The atmosphere’s great in Indo-UK climate science!
Last week was an exceptional week in taking the UK-India relationship in climate science to an even higher level, from an already strong position. The week was jam-packed with three events, two of which ran in parallel. The first was the joint Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) – UK’s Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) scoping […]
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14th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Video blog from Sibiu
While in Sibiu, I was challenged by the regional blogging community to do a video blog about my trip. So here it is. Find out more about my meetings with the local authorities and the British businesses.
14th February 2013 Lima, Peru
Peru: Violence against women persists
By: Andrea Querol. Executive Director and Founder of Capital Humano y Social Alternativo. When you work on areas related to human rights, you do not need to dig deep to realise that women (as well as children and teenagers) are often the most vulnerable in our societies. Their rights are violated constantly; not just during […]
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13th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Don’t underestimate the impact of a face to face meetings.
Anyone who has worked in Latin America will know that nothing really replaces face to face contact for increasing understanding and building relationships. That is why it is so positive for the UK’s relationship with Guatemala that one of the first visits by Foreign Minister Fernando Carrera has been to the UK. His meeting with […]
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13th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Helping British Businesses from Istanbul to Bishkek to Moscow and beyond
In the Palm Court of the British Consulate-General in Istanbul, staff are gathered from British Embassies in eight South Caucasus and Central Asian countries1 ranging from Georgia in the west to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in the east. Trade and Investment specialists from the British Embassy in Moscow and from UK Trade and Investment in London as […]
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13th February 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Fatherhood and Mansaf
Political slogans are part of elections all round the world. They try to encapsulate a simple attractive catchphrase to make the voter support their candidate. They usually promise a better world and try to energise the voter: “Yes We Can”, “Tough on Crime” “The Buck Stops Here”. The trouble with election slogans is that they tend […]