1st June 2011
President Basescu will visit London next week for talks with David Cameron. High on their agenda will be economic growth [*ro, PDF brochure 871 KB, new window]. This question is now urgent. Both our countries are emerging from recession, but the recovery is slow. Growth is forecast to be around 1.7% in the UK this […]
19th May 2011
There’s a sacred island off the west coast of Scotland called Iona that was once described as a ‘thin place’ – one where the layer that separates heaven from earth is especially slim. The same can be said of Maramures. There are many things that impressed me about this region of Romania, hidden away in […]
18th May 2011 Bucharest, Romania
An exhilarating week for me, with plenty of networking during and on the margins of the Leadership Conference and opportunities to interact with other colleagues, locally-employed by the Foreign Office, from all around the world. I was impressed with the support that the Foreign Office received from the Prime Minister who gave recognition to the […]
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17th May 2011
Foreign Minister Baconschi’s visit to London yesterday marks a new step in Romania’s relations with the United Kingdom. As he said in his press conference with his counterpart William Hague, we are building on the strategic partnership created between both countries in 2003. But the context today is quite different from eight years ago. The […]
28th April 2011
There can be few countries outside the UK where the Royal Wedding is being followed more avidly than in Romania. TV coverage began a week ago, the newspapers are full of information about Prince William and his bride-to-be Kate and everyone I meet is looking forward eagerly to the big day. That’s true even here […]
19th April 2011
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
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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15th April 2011
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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6th April 2011
Romania and the UK find themselves in similar economic circumstances. We are emerging from the economic crisis, we have had to bear down hard on public spending, and we need to find new sources of growth to sustain our economies in the decade ahead. This is true for many countries in Europe. And the need […]
30th March 2011
There’s a new sport being played in schools across Romania – debating. Actually this sport comes in two variations. The team sport is debating and the individual sport is public speaking. Over the last week I participated in both – as chairman of the judges in the Romanian national final of the English Speaking Union’s […]