DIPLO Blog

Skip to content Paul Brummell Head of Soft Power and External Affairs Department, Communication Directorate 30th October 2019 London,UK MIND YOUR LANGUAGE The Indigenous Peoples’ Memorial is one of the many striking buildings in the Brazilian capital designed by the prolific modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Built in a spiral-shaped design around a central courtyard it was apparently inspired by a Yanomami house. In truth, the building is looking a little the worse for wear. The permanent collection was closed when I visited while on holiday in August, but it was still a worthwhile visit, thanks to a display in that central courtyard, installed to commemorate the UN designation of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Entitled “the Forest of Indigenous Languages”, from the sand-covered courtyard sprouted many wooden poles, each representing a different indigenous language. The poles were of varying heights, since to a standard-height base had been added an addition..

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 25th October 2019 Vienna, Austria White trees, blue skies and a green plan Have you ever wondered why the trees are painted white in Vienna? To stop cars running into them, protect them from dogs? The special paint protects new bark from the summer sun! Woodland trees don’t require sun cream but the intense environments of our cities means it’s not only humans who need protection from harmful rays. I recently had a wonderful opportunity to meet Austria-based British Tree Surgeon Martin Speariett, whilst he was dangling precariously from a Robinia tree he had been pruning in the Embassy’s garden. He said that increasing the amount of ‘green coverage’ in cities helped regulate temperature and reduce air pollution. More trees meant cleaner air but, in man-made environments, we were responsible for keeping the trees ..

The Oxford Food Symposium has not always held an obvious link to foreign policy, but diplomacy was there at its conception. It was co-founded by a diplomat named Alan Davidson, whose Foreign Office career ended as Ambassador to Laos in the early 1970s. It was while on a posting to Tunisia that Davidson, frustrated at the lack of a decent book on the local seafood, embarked on a parallel career as a food writer, with Seafish of Tunisia and the Central Mediterranean. Food guru Elizabeth David took the book under her wing, or perhaps fin, and it reappeared in expanded form as a Penguin publication with the snappier title Mediterranean Seafood. Following his retirement from the Foreign Office, Davidson spent an academic year at St Anthony’s Oxford in the late 1970s, conducting research on science in the kitchen from an historical perspective..

This is the first chance that I have had to sit and reflect upon my first month in a new home, a new city, and a new role as UK Ambassador to Serbia.

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia Part of UK in Serbia 18th October 2019 Belgrade, Serbia First Impressions 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 building sites. This is the first chance that I have had to sit and reflect upon my first month in a new home, a new city, and a new role as UK Ambassador to Serbia. I have travelled widely as a diplomat for over thirty years, but my first visit to Belgrade was as a music student crossing Europe by train sleeping in stations, on beaches, with an old rucksack and a very small tent on my back. I remember the fields of sunflowers, the buses and the cobble stones of Skadarlija. This summer I set out again by train from my home corner of rural England, heading for a region..

18 Oct 2019 — DFAT Working together is key to strengthening resilience across the Asia-Pacific This year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, or “DRR Day”, is a time to reflect on how risk-informed development can minimise the impacts of natural hazards on our communities. Urbanisation and climate change mean that disaster risk reduction is more important than ever. To solve these complex problems we need coordinated and clever solutions. It’s a challenge most Australians are all too familiar with. It’s also something our neighbours across the region are grappling with. Australia sits in the centre of the Asia-Pacific, the world’s most disaster-exposed region. A person living in the Asia-Pacific is almost twice as likely to be affected by a disaster as a person living in Africa. We share common issues and challenges with our Asia-Pacific partners, especially our range of rural, remote, urban and coastal communities and our increasing exposure to highly vola..

Skip to content Nick Hooper Part of Global Science and Innovation Network UK in USA 18th October 2019 Los Angeles, USA Better than Hal: UK companies applying AI to the space industryIn March, the Science and Innovation Network, DIT, and Innovate UK led a Global Expert Mission to US robotics centers of excellence. The UK-USA Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) in Extreme Environments delegation spent a week in Los Angeles, San Diego and Houston, meeting with a variety of potential partners in space, oceans and nuclear robotics. Since then, Ahmed Hadid from Hybird Tech has spent the summer in Los Angeles. Find out why…

Skip to content Nerys Jones Deputy Head of Mission, British Embassy Vienna Guest blogger for Leigh Turner Part of UK in Austria 17th October 2019 Vienna, Austria Discovering Austria through Hiking in the Fog “Are you getting out?” “Yes”, I replied. “I’m getting out of the cable car. And the Prime Minister has made clear we will leave the EU on 31 October.“ I never thought I would have to explain British Government policy whilst trying to jump out of a moving cable car. But perhaps it helps. Part of our job as diplomats is to understand, and influence, Austria. That means meeting, and understanding, Austrians. That is why I recently accepted an invitation to join a group of diplomats, politicians and business leaders at the 10th Wirtschaftswanderung (business hike) in Kitzbühel. In its first ten years, the hike has also raised over Euro 200,000 for the ‘Netzwerk Tirol hilft’, a regional charitable organisation that provides immediate emergency support to those in need in Tyrol. Diploma..

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 15th October 2019 Vienna, Austria Healthcare for UK nationals in Austria after Brexit The UK is preparing to leave the EU on 31st October. If there is a deal, your current rights as a resident of Austria will remain the same, as long as you remain resident in Austria. If there is no deal, your access to healthcare may change. The UK Government is working hard to secure healthcare arrangements if we leave the EU without a deal, but there are actions you should take now. The first thing you need to do is to review your healthcare cover and make sure you understand how you are currently insured. After Brexit, the large majority of UK nationals living and working here in Austria will continue to be covered as before – for example anyone who works here and pays, or has paid, into an Austrian Krankenkasse. But, if you ..

Skip to content Nick Grant Executive Director, Strategy and International Partnerships at Cancer Research UK Guest blogger for Rosie Duthie Part of Global Science and Innovation Network 15th October 2019 Science and Innovation Network India and the UK join forces for Affordable Approaches to Cancer – Funding for Seven Research Challenges open now! Late last year, just over 60 leading cancer experts from India and the UK gathered in Delhi for 2 days. They were attending a researchers’ summit with one important aim: to identify the core research challenges in developing affordable approaches to the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer. During those 2 days in India, the foundations were laid for the ‘Affordable Approaches to Cancer’ initiative, a partnership between Cancer Research UK and India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT). This new partnership aims to bring together the best and brightest of the British and Indian scientific communities to address the biggest cance..