How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 7th September 2020

Skip to content Leigh Turner
Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
7th September 2020 Vienna, Austria
How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed‘You were a diplomat in Vienna in the ‘80s?’ My interlocutor scans me, perhaps wondering why I am still working, or alive. ‘It must have changed so much!’
‘Well…’ I seek a diplomatic reply. ‘Yes and no.’
Oscar Wilde famously said “Comparisons are odious”. I often cite him when asked which of my diplomatic postings I have preferred out of Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul. But Vienna has evolved since 1984-87, when I served here as second secretary press and political.
With exactly one year to go before I am due to conclude my posting as ambassador in Vienna, I thought I would have a go at highlighting five things that have changed since the ‘80s, and five things that haven’t:
What hasn’t changed

(i) Vienna used to be so grey and dull, didn’t it? Young Vi..

How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 7th September 2020

Skip to content Leigh Turner
Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
7th September 2020 Vienna, Austria
How Austria has – and hasn’t – changed‘You were a diplomat in Vienna in the ‘80s?’ My interlocutor scans me, perhaps wondering why I am still working, or alive. ‘It must have changed so much!’
‘Well…’ I seek a diplomatic reply. ‘Yes and no.’
Oscar Wilde famously said “Comparisons are odious”. I often cite him when asked which of my diplomatic postings I have preferred out of Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul. But Vienna has evolved since 1984-87, when I served here as second secretary press and political.
With exactly one year to go before I am due to conclude my posting as ambassador in Vienna, I thought I would have a go at highlighting five things that have changed since the ‘80s, and five things that haven’t:
What hasn’t changed

(i) Vienna used to be so grey and dull, didn’t it? Young Vi..

‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’0

• DIPLO Blog, Public diplomacy
• 31st August 2020

Skip to content Ming Liu
Head of Science and Innovation
Part of Global Science and Innovation Network
31st August 2020 Guangzhou, China
‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’In March, a large shipment of thousands of masks, gloves, overalls and goggles arrived in Birmingham. Stapled to the side of each of the crates was a quote, in both Chinese and English, attributed to William Shakespeare: ‘He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.’ (“岁寒知松柏，患难见真情.”) This consignment was one of many from Chinese universities to their partner institutions in the UK. In this case, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University sent this shipment to their long standing partner, the University of Birmingham.
Minister Sharma spoke at the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in 2017
The importance of partnerships comes the fore in times of crisis. As the scale of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK became apparent in March, we started to receive g..