Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

3rd December 2024

Enthronement of the first Serbian Bishop in London

Belgrade, Serbia

RENEWING OLD TIES: THE NEW BISHOP OF LONDON

by Edward Ferguson

British Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia

25th November 2024

Canberra, Australia

The climate crisis and gender-based violence

by Vicki Treadell

British High Commissioner to Australia

8th November 2024

Berlin, Germany

Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?

by Kate Robinson

Science and Innovation Advisor, British Embassy Berlin

9th December 2016 Shanghai

by Gareth Taylor

Consul, Science & Innovation, British Consulate-General Shanghai

Tackling the ‘superbug’ that threatens the future of medicine

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR for short) could be the biggest killer you’ve never heard of. Last year an estimated 700,000 people around the world died from AMR. And this figure is increasing rapidly. If left unchecked, deaths will increase to 10 million per year by 2050. To put that in context, 8.2 million people globally died […]

9th December 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka

by Laura Davies

Former Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Trading Together

On Monday, I went to the opening of the London Stock Exchange Group’s new technology hub in Sri Lanka. The hub is in the TRACE Expert City precinct of Colombo. It’s a lovely location: working closely with the Urban Development Authority, the Group’s architects have converted beautiful old brick railway buildings into light and spacious […]

Royal Society of Chemistry and GlaxoSmithKline One Week Training in Lagos

I was opportune to present a speech about the Science and Innovation Network (SIN) at Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)/ GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) GCMS Training which commenced 21 – 25 November 2016 at the University of Lagos (Unilag). Furthermore I wrote the speech for the Deputy High Commissioner at post […]

8th December 2016 New Delhi, India

by Swati Saxena

Senior Science and Innovation Adviser

‘Smart’ farming – way ahead – UK India agritech partnership

We need to produce more food with less land and fewer resources. These challenges mean that new agricultural science and technology is needed. Precision farming combines technology with livestock and crop science to improve agricultural practice. One effect is on yields: precision agriculture (PA) allows farmers to extract as much value as possible from every […]

7th December 2016 Lagos, Nigeria

by Bisola Dawon

Science and Innovation Officer

Environmental Challenges in Nigeria and Need for Stakeholder Engagement in Green Economy

I was privileged to represent SIN at a film screening ‘Nowhere to run’ recently hosted by the UK- High Commissioner to Nigeria- Paul Arkwright, at his British Residence highlighting environmental challenges in Nigeria linked to the global threat of climate change. This compelling documentary won the best documentary award at the African Film Festival, amongst […]

6th December 2016

by Paul Brummell

Head of Soft Power and External Affairs Department, Communication Directorate

This post was published when the author was in a previous role

UK – Romania ties: the story of Her Majesty’s great-great grandmother

The small town of Sangeorgiu de Padure, in Mures County in the heart of Transylvania, has a mostly ethnic Hungarian population and an unexpected connection to the British Royal Family. At the heart of the town is the two-storey white-walled Rhedey Castle, actually more palace than castle, which dates originally from the 17th century, though […]

5th December 2016 Riyhad, Saudi Arabia

Simon Collis

HM Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

BRITAIN IN THE GULF: PARTNERS BUILDING A SECURE AND PROSPEROUS FUTURE

In a fast changing world, enduring relationships built on trust and common interests matter. This year we celebrate 100 years of UK relations with Saudi Arabia, where I currently live and work, and an amazing 200 years of relations with Bahrain, my first posting as a baby diplomat 35 years ago and host to this […]

2nd December 2016 Kolkata, India

by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

White revolution

There are about 123 million cattle in India, so the Kolkata based Telegraph newspaper informed me recently. The paper was citing India’s 2012 national cow census. That’s a lot of cattle, or roughly one for every ten Indians. The equivalent number in Britain is 1.9 million. This is the size of the total dairy herd […]

Presenting Credentials

Last weekend I had the enormous honour of presenting my credentials to Prime Minister Fayez Serraj in Tripoli. Four other European Ambassadors presented their credentials at the same time. What does this mean? And why is it important? Ambassadors are formally appointed by their Head of State and are given letters of appointment. These letters […]

1st December 2016

by Keith Allan

British High Commissioner to Mauritius

This post was published when the author was in a previous role

Visit to Vologodskaya region, home of Russia’s largest steel company and the first Russian Ambassador to Britain

Vologodskaya region is at the southern end of my consular district, Russia’s large North West Federal District. The two main cities are the regional administrative centre, Vologda, and the industrial centre, Cherepovets. Both lie approximately half way between Moscow and St Petersburg. I was keen to see and hear more about this region of Russia, […]