Public diplomacy

China’s leaders are looking to turn the COVID-19 crisis to their advantage, but their task will be much harder than in 2008—and not only...

Skip to content Sian MacLeod UK Ambassador to Serbia 8th April 2020 Belgrade, Serbia A Tale of Two Hospitals Since the world became aware of the new deadly coronavirus COVID19 spreading rapidly among the population of a Chinese province, governments around the world have been planning and preparing to deal with its expected effects. But few people can have anticipated the scale of devastation and disruption that this virus would soon be bringing to communities around the world. Like coloured dye dripped into a bowl of water, the virus has spread even to the most remote corners of the world. Working in a global network everyday I read personal accounts of the impact upon great powers, European neighbours, and the tiniest island communities in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. As a British diplomat working at home in Belgrade and in constant touch with my Embassy and colleagues across the Western Balkans I follow developments in the UK and Serbia particularly closely. My Embassy and ..

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna 6th April 2020 Vienna, Austria Getting 391 British Nationals home safely A plane approaches London Heathrow, appearing to grow larger as it nears the runway. As British airways flight BA0961 lands safely, a collective sigh of relief is heard at the British Embassy in Vienna. In the last two weeks, the British Embassy in Vienna has helped 391 people get out of ski resorts in Austria to return home to the UK. This is part of the Foreign Office’s huge international task of getting travelling British nationals home, as international transport routes close. On 3-5 April, a group of 129 seasonal ski workers, including British and Irish nationals, returned to the UK from quarantine areas in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. To do this, they needed to register with the embassy for special permission to leave a quarantine zone. We then worked closely with..

“May Allah keep you, our cousins.” Warm messages such as that have been flooding into the Arabic-language social media accounts of the Israel Ministry...

Skip to content Matt Field British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina 25th March 2020 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina “We can be heroes. Just for one day.” I sit to write this blog at a table in my home. Like many people across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and in fact the world, I am currently working from home, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am lucky to have the space and technology to do so. There are many who want to work, but are now unable. I hope to show that being an Ambassador is also a job that can be done remotely. And I am really pleased that as the British Embassy we are all doing our part. Why? Because we collectively face the greatest public health crisis in a generation. It is now abundantly clear that the entire world is affected, or will be so, and that every single one of us has a role to play. On the frontline are our doctors, nurses, emergency service staff, and similar critical workers. Many are continuing to do other essential work, the shop assistants,..

Once more, the debate over the BBC – particularly the license fee – is hotting up. As the Government turns its eyes on to the UK’s public broadcaster, the value for money of the license fee has come under scrutiny. But Sir David Clementi, Chairman of the BBC, has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson “that attacks on the corporation will result in a “weakened United Kingdom” amid tensions with Downing Street over the broadcaster’s future.” Certainly, when it comes to soft power – the BBC is an asset which should not be taken for granted. At an event in Westminster recently, Sir Robbie Gibb, former Adviser to Theresa May and Head of BBC Westminster, made a number of salient points with regard to the BBC’s soft power. He argued that ‘if you go anywhere in the world and ask what they know about the UK, they’ll say the Queen… and the BBC.’..

Ta vest u ponedeljak bila druga po čitanosti na aplikaciji Veibo, sa 330 miliona čitalaca Na poruku predsednika Aleksandra Vučića, koju je objavio na Instagramu...

COVID-19 definitivno otvara nova poglavlja digitalne diplomatije. Samo 24 časa od otvaranja profila 'SerbianEmbassy' na popularnoj kineskoj društvenoj mreži Weibo, stranicu naše ambasade zapratilo...

Skip to content Bob Last Deputy Head, UK Mission Political Team 19th March 2020 Geneva, Switzerland Corona Council (24 February – 13 March) I’ve long had a sense of foredboding about the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council. Those of us who’ve been around these parts longer than most tend to measure our life-spans in the number of Council sessions we’ve racked up, as well as years. I worked out some time ago that session 43 would be the one when my real age and my Council age would come together and it was not something I’d been looking forward to. Before the session began, the biggest talking point had been how we would manage to finish the session on time following the drastic cuts in meeting time imposed on the Council by UN HQ. The fear was that the session might overrun by a couple of days into a fifth week. But who could have imagined this? For the last few weeks, it felt like the walls were creeping in on us, slowly at first, but ever closer and more menacing as the scale a..

On March 11, a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund took place in Moscow. It was opened...