17th October 2024 Belgrade, Serbia
20. oktobar 1944. godine. Jugoslovenski partizani i vojnici sovjetske Crvene armije probili su se u Beograd, oslobađajući grad od nemačkih snaga koje su ga držale pod okupacijom od aprila 1941. Oslobođenje Beograda bilo je kulminacija višegodišnjeg gerilskog ratovanja na celoj teritoriji Jugoslavije. Niz ofanzivnih operacija partizana tokom meseci koji su prethodili bile su podstaknute činjenicom […]
12th June 2023 Belgrade, Serbia
As a diplomat living or working in a historic building you find yourself thinking about the people who occupied the same physical and professional space before you. This is natural curiosity, interest in historic events and a wish to understand past relationships that underpin present day ones. I hope the Financial Times will forgive me […]
5th June 2023 Belgrade, Serbia
Dear Serbia, I first arrived in Belgrade in the mid-1980s by train as a student with a small tent. I caught a number 53 bus to the campsite that used to next to the ‘Kamp Košutnjak’ café. Had I known then what the future held for me, I could have looked across the valley to the […]
8th February 2021 Belgrade, Serbia
In this strangest of years, international cooperation has taken on a different aspect. Border closures, quarantine and testing regimes have never before been part of my daily diplomatic vocabulary. Though as a well travelled diplomat vaccination has long played a small but important part in my professional life. The world faces a common challenge that […]
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21st September 2020 Belgrade, Serbia
I was recently asked to open a conference on communications. Because of the public health situation the conference was held virtually, that is to say, online. It’s a dangerous thing to be an amateur opening a conference of professionals. To do so using their own medium was, to use typically British irony, ‘courageous’. I realised […]
18th October 2019 Belgrade, Serbia
It’s a beautiful October day as I write. As I sit in my Belgrade garden I see clouds of newly hatched late ladybirds, the first yellow leaves shaken by a mild breeze, warm weak sunshine and distant haze. Around me the hum of urban life is punctuated by hammering and bursts of drilling from nearby […]