2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
13th October 2025
UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls: September visits to Sarajevo and New York
13th July 2018 Vienna, Austria
Brexit and the rights of UK citizens in Austria Q&A
Update: for the UK Government’s guidance on Living in Austria as a UK national, see Living in Austria. Please sign up for email updates on that page to get the latest information as and when anything changes. A team from the Department for Exiting the EU visited Vienna recently to talk to UK ex-pats and […]
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12th July 2018
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
When the Western Balkans came to London
This week, the leaders of 16 countries came to London for the fifth Western Balkans Summit within the Berlin Process created by Chancellor Merkel. It was an important moment – a chance to take stock of the progress that has been made in the region, and a chance to plan for the future. The agreement […]
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11th July 2018
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Britain In Romania
Our #BritainInRomania public diplomacy campaign aims to celebrate our bilateral partnership. One of the goals we set ourselves was to hold an event in each of the twelve cities across Romania ever to have hosted a UK consulate or vice-consulate, exploring the UK’s links with the city and region in question. We completed this programme […]
10th July 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
World Cup Council
There’s little point writing about anything not related to football at the moment and I wouldn’t expect anyone to give it much attention if I did. By a happy coincidence, plenty of the countries who qualified for the World Cup finals were busy at the Human Rights Council too. I’m happy to report that we […]
10th July 2018 Wellington, New Zealand
Three Lions Leadership
Arsene Wenger once said that to be a football manager is to live on a volcano. The difference between adulation and castigation is paper-thin, and turns as much on luck as on skill… And yet. There is something about Gareth Southgate. 50 years of hurt can do funny things to a country, but the love that Southgate enjoys right […]
6th July 2018 Vienna, Austria
#Diplomatsforequality – LGBTI rights are human rights
A vast parade of colourful floats and marchers streams around the Ringstrasse in Vienna. More than 200,000 people watch and participate. Towards the front of the spectacle, 200 people – including 15 ambassadors – wave flags, dance and sing, marching behind a banner reading #diplomatsforequality. Welcome to #ViennaPride 2018. The three British Vienna diplomatic missions […]
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3rd July 2018 Skopje, North Macedonia
Goodbye Macedonia
On Wednesday I shall pack the car, drive up the road to Tabanovce and on out of Macedonia. The end of a posting prompts retrospective thoughts. And this time, leaving a country which has generated so much history in the last four years, is no different. It has been an extraordinary privilege to serve in […]
3rd July 2018 Vienna, Austria
Prince Metternich, the UK, Austria and the Western Balkans
Guest blog by Jeremy Wilmshurst, Second Secretary (Political) There’s a saying in Vienna, ascribed to 19th Century Austrian statesman Prince Metternich, that ‘the Balkans begins on Rennweg’. The latter is the road running south-east out of Vienna in the direction of Belgrade and beyond. Close to the top of Rennweg stands the British Embassy (reached, […]
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29th June 2018 Vienna, Austria
Horse-punching not required: a Viennese salon at the Jewish Museum
My blog of last September described the “Charles Stewart Conversations”, our regular series of salons here at the British Embassy in Vienna. I wrote how we decided to name the salon after Lord Charles Vane-Stewart, Third Marquess of Londonderry, the first British Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of Austria, from 1814-1823 (there’s a […]
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29th June 2018 Science and Innovation Network
How’s the weather in Jakarta?
As a Brit abroad, it’s still my go-to conversation starter when I call my colleagues in other countries in the region. There’s a misconception that the weather at the equator is the same most of the year round, but this is far from the truth! The islands of Southeast Asia (known to meteorologists as the […]