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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
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19th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Romania’s Navy, NATO’s asset
Last week I went down to Romania’s naval base at Constanta to visit the frigate ‘King Ferdinand’ as it makes its final preparations for ‘Operation Unified Protector’, the NATO led operation to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. The ‘Ferdinand’ has a distinguished record of service in similar operations, notably ‘Operation Active Endeavour’ – […]
18th April 2011 Bucharest, Romania
Diplomatic excellence in the Foreign Office
The Foreign Office’s annual gathering of heads of mission, called the FCO Leadership Conference, will be dedicated this year to diplomatic excellence. I am privileged to attend this key event in May and to have a first-hand account of what the Foreign Secretary, top British diplomats from missions all across the world, and other colleagues think about […]
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17th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Speechifying…
Ambassadors are called on to make many speeches. I recently calculated that in the course of the previous month I had made some 50 – ranging from brief remarks in English to about 30 minutes in Hungarian; and at formal, informal and largely fun events. The subject matter covered a wide field too – from […]
15th April 2011 New York, USA
Mayor of the Consulate
I wanted to let you know that I am considering changing my title here at the consulate. Instead of Deputy Consul-General, I hope to soon be known as the “Mayor”. No I am not declaring my candidacy against the honourable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York. I am joining the wave of […]
15th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Seeing Queensland “open for business” again, with Kevin Rudd
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd invited the diplomatic corps to visit his home state of Queensland to see how well it is recovering from the terrible January floods. I went with some 70 High Commissioners, Ambassadors and other diplomats. Having been up in Brisbane with William Hague shortly after the floods, it was good to return […]
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15th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Guest blogger: London 2012, a celebration of diversity in sports
Blog by Sally Wood-Lamont, President of the Romanian National Paralympic Committee I am delighted that the UK will host, for the third time in the history of the Olympic Games, an event that will keep the whole world connected through the values of fair competition and excellence in sports. That London 2012 has Paralympics at […]
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14th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
What I think about Ukraine
I’ve been blogging about Ukraine for a while now – over 170 entries, plus the web-diary I started in 2009 before the blog went live. It’s been a fascinating time and I hope readers have found the blogs interesting. Blogging is a good way to set out what I think about Ukraine on different issues. […]
14th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
أهمية الكرامة
كلمة "الكرامة" كلمة نسمعها كثيرا في العالم العربي في الوقت الراهن. سمعناها في تونس في شهر كانون الاول وفي ميدان التحرير في القاهرة في شهر كانون الثاني كما أننا نسمعها في ليبيا وسوريا الآن. الكرامة جزء أساسي من الثقافة العربية. و الكلمة في طبيعة الحال تحمل معنى مختلف لكل شخص، ولكنها كانت في قلب الأحداث […]
13th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Bolivia supports an end to cluster munitions
This week I want to congratulate Bolivia. On 8 April, the Chamber of Deputies of the Plurinational Assembly voted by unanimity to support the proposed law to ratify the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Oslo Convention is the most significant arms control agreement of recent years. It came into force on 1 August 2010 […]
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13th April 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Importance of Dignity
A word we hear a lot in the Arab world at the moment is “dignity”. We heard it in Tunisia in December and in Tahrir Square in Cairo in January. And we are hearing it in Libya and Syria now. Dignity is a fundamental foundation of Arab culture. The word of course means different things […]