Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

15th February 2013

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

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 […]

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15th February 2013

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by Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

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 […]

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15th February 2013 New Delhi, India

Rita Sharma

by Rita Sharma

Head of Newton Fund in 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

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by Martin Harris

British Ambassador to Ukraine

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.

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13th February 2013

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by Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

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

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

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

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by Peter Millett

Ambassador to Libya, Tripoli

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 […]

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13th February 2013 London, UK

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by Rob Fenn

Head of Human Rights and Democracy Department, FCO

Regatta Brunei 2013

Be careful what you wish for. That mantra went round and round in my head as I and twelve other Excellencies paddled down the Brunei River, vainly trying to catch the boat in front, urged on by friendly cheering (or was it laughter) from every jetty, doorway and window of Kampong Ayer – Brunei’s Water […]

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