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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
7th November 2012 New Delhi, India
Spotlight on open calls
From our survey back in June, we know many of you have a strong interest in the finding out about UK-India funding opportunities. So, thought we would write a special ‘Spotlight On’ blog to tell you about the current open calls. Hot off the press, last week the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council […]
6th November 2012 London, UK
Croatia, and why EU enlargement matters
In my last blog, I was looking back at the changes that came about as a result of 20 years of the single market. But for Croatia’s 4.4 million inhabitants, the last two decades have seen change of an even more profound variety. In 1992, the year I entered Parliament, war was still raging in […]
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5th November 2012 USA
Mountain West energy pragmatism
Every time I have the good fortune to venture outside the Beltway, I am amazed at the sheer amount of interesting and innovative technological and policy-related work going on around the US energy industry. A recent visit to Colorado did not disappoint. The state is blessed with an abundance of energy resources, both fossil and […]
5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A time to study…
As you may have spotted on the Embassy’s front page today, applications are now being accepted for the next round of the Chevening Programme – a prestigious full scholarship for a year’s Master’s degree study in the UK. We’re privileged to have sent a number of excellent students on this programme in the past, and […]
5th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Washington, New York, and the Blustery Day
Last weekend while sitting in the TEDx MidAtlantic conference, I found myself feeling edgy. I kept compulsively checking my e-mails and Twitter feed for mentions of “Sandy”. After almost a year in Washington DC, hurricane Sandy was my first experience of extreme weather in the US. Which is why, as photographs of empty DC grocery […]
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5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Travelling to the UK: Priority Business Visas
Business is booming between the UK and Turkey. We are well on track to meet the commitment made in 2010 by Prime Ministers David Cameron and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to double trade between our two countries by 2015. Part of boosting business is getting our visa policy right. That’s why earlier this year we introduced […]
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5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Australia in the Asian Century: mutual challenges and opportunities
The Australian government published a White Paper last week setting out strategic directions for “Australia in the Asian Century”. It outlined things Australia needs to do to increase its orientation towards the rising Asian countries, and things it needs to do domestically to improve its economic competitiveness in the face of ever more intense competition. […]
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5th November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
"Never, Ever Again…"
…I read on the statue outside the “Red Terror” Martyrs’ Memorial Monument museum in Meskel Square, Addis Ababa, when I visited recently. The motto reflects Ethiopia’s determination never again to allow the terror that flourished under the Derg military junta in 1977-8 to be repeated. Under Mengistu Haile Mariam, who still lives in exile in […]
2nd November 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Global Church
I often have to remind people that I am not accredited to the Vatican City State, but to the Holy See. This is an important difference. It means being accredited to the governance of the global Catholic Church including its 5,000 bishops, its capillary networks of nuncios, priests, religious and Catholic NGOs around the world, […]
1st November 2012 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Businessmen and Saints
Last week was taken up with the annual session of the Uzbek-British Trade and Industry Council, known as UBTIC. It brings together representatives of British companies working or interested in working in Uzbekistan, and of Government Ministries and state holding companies on the Uzbek side. It’s the biggest event of the commercial year for us, […]