Public diplomacy

A village in Guatemala has been named after Serbia as a token of gratitude for the assistance extended to its locals by Honorary Consul...

Skip to content Matt Field British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina 15th May 2020 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina A home for all of us 17 May is IDAHOBIT, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. While there are many special days to mark throughout the year, this is an important one to me personally. Last September, my wife Martina and I took part in the first PRIDE march in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was a happy day for us, and the many others that joined the peaceful walk through the centre of Sarajevo. It belonged to all of those citizens of this country who organised and participated in it, despite a small but sometimes hostile group of opponents during preparations. Why was this PRIDE, in the last country in the region to hold one, important? Because it was a message of support to all LGBTI brothers and sisters, that they did not need to hide their identity, that they were valued and welcome members of society. And this matters because so many of the..

Despite accepting aid from China to fight the coronavirus, the president of Serbia writes that his country is committed to a pro-Western foreign policy. A...

Skip to content Nick Low British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata Part of Coronavirus (COVID-19) UK in India 8th May 2020 India Manipur to London: One Brit’s epic 8,000-mile journey from India Whether at home or overseas, each of us will have our own memories of the COVID-19 pandemic – both personal and professional. In India, we’ll recall the fateful 24 hours in late March when FCO advised all British tourists and short-stay travellers abroad to return to the UK and the Government of India imposed what its External Affairs Minister has described as the ‘world’s toughest lockdown’. No flights, no trains, no buses, closed inter-state borders, stressed connectivity as India Plc tried to work as normal using home broadband, and northwards of 20,000 British Nationals telling us they did indeed want to go home. Here at the British Deputy High Commission Kolkata, we were spared the thousands in Goa, Gujarat and Punjab. Instead we had hundreds of British Nationals scattered across a consu..

04 May Nina Jankowicz & Peter Pomerantsev on the Future of Disinformation Posted at 17:00h in Events, Upcoming Event by Sophia Gaston Sophia Gaston spoke with Nina Jankowicz and Peter Pomerantsev, two of the leading expert researchers into contemporary disinformation, to explore the role that it is playing in the Coronavirus pandemic. They discussed the differing ways in which disinformation was being harnessed, the challenges of studying a landscape fraught with as much misinformation as disinformation, the next phases of government regulation, and the likely prominence of disinformation in the 2020 US Presidential Election. Nina Jankowicz works at The Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., where she studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe. Her book, ‘How to Lose the Information War’, will be published in July 2020. Ms. Jankowicz has advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications under the a..

29 Apr 2020 — DFAT Helping Australian businesses get the most out of our Free Trade Agreements This article was originally published in November 2018 and updated in April 2020. By Michael Dean and Angela Rendall, Free Trade Agreement Outreach Section, DFAT The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Portal provides easy access to information that helps exporters, importers, customs brokers, freight forwarders and other businesses benefit from Australia’s free trade agreements. Users of the FTA Portal can, for instance, search for the goods they want to export using keywords, find reduced free trade agreement tariff rates, and learn how to obtain the documents necessary to get tariff reductions. The FTA Portal also includes guidance and information on selling services to overseas customers, travelling overseas to supply services, and establishing an overseas presence. Where more than one free trade agreement is available to an exporter or importer, the FTA Portal helps identify which..

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna Part of UK in Austria 27th April 2020 Vienna, Austria Why now is the time to take global action against COVID-19 Coronavirus or COVID-19 has been shaping the reality of life and work in Austria, the UK and around the world. As we are all trying to do our bit to fight the spread of the virus (stay at home!) and adapt where possible to a new normal, I think it’s worth reminding ourselves that in order to find a long term solution to the threat posed by the virus we have to work together as a global community. We face an urgent need to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute therapeutics, diagnostics and a vaccine. No country can do this on its own. Without cooperation on this, our eventual recovery will take longer, be more uncertain and bring greater risk of repeated outbreaks. As an international, open and densely populated coun..

Director of the British Foreign Policy Group, Sophia Gaston, wrote for the Telegraph, arguing that Coronavirus should not stop us defining and championing Global Britain. In the piece, Sophia argues: “There have been many policy casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, but one of the most significant shifts in the UK Government’s focus has been the postponement of the Integrated Review of our Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. The Review had finally swung into motion and was hurtling ahead at break-neck speed, the government mindful that international goodwill towards the Global Britain project could not be sustained indefinitely on a handful of aspirational speeches. In the four years since the referendum on our membership of the European Union, Britain’s foreign policy has existed largely in..

Skip to content Robin Barnett Ambassador to Ireland, Dublin Part of Coronavirus (COVID-19) 22nd April 2020 Dublin, Ireland Living in LockdownI wanted to reflect on the Coronavirus crisis, the tragic loss of so many lives around the world and on actions that need to be taken to defeat the virus. The enormity of what is happening is incredibly difficult to come to terms with. Just like everybody else, I have never known anything like this despite spending 40 years as a diplomat and living through such historic ruptures as the end of the Cold War. The impact is dramatic at every level, including personal. I too am separated from friends and loved ones. I too miss the social things that we all enjoy so much. But the stay home policy is successfully beginning to halt the spread of the Coronavirus both here in Ireland and in the UK. Most importantly, it is easing the pressure on the heroic health service professionals in both our countries. They are true celebrities. And they have been supp..

16 Apr Conspiracy Theories in the COVID-19 Crisis and their Social & Geopolitical Consequences Posted at 08:47h in UK Perspectives by Sophia Gaston There are a number of historically unique factors about the moment at which the COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the world, and it certainly arrived at an especially delicate moment in the trajectory of Western liberal democracies. Socially and politically, the pandemic is being experienced in the aftermath of a number of developments that have chipped away at some of the traditional tools of governance and preconditions of cohesive societies. Of particular alarm has been the prominent role of conspiracy theories – which have been gaining an increasing degree of visibility and influence in Western political life over recent years. The rise of social media, the growth in anti-establishment political movements, the declining levels of trust in institutions, and the rising competition between social gr..