Public diplomacy

Skip to content Paul Madden British Ambassador to Japan 17th August 2020 Tokyo, Japan William Adams: the first Briton in Japan If you have ever seen the 1980s TV mini-series “Shogun” you will be familiar with the story of William Adams, the “first Englishman in Japan”. It’s a fascinating tale. Shipwrecked in Japan in 1600, ship’s pilot Adams quickly won the confidence of the warlord Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, advising him on many aspects of international affairs, shipbuilding and navigation. He was to stay in Japan for the next twenty years, serving the Shogun, the British East India Company and trading around the region in his own right. He was given a Japanese name Miura Anjin, the rank of samurai, and married the daughter of a Japanese official. He never returned to his first wife in Britain, but was eventually able to send her money. This year is the 400th anniversary of Adams’ death. To mark the occasion we have been planning to erect a sculpture in the gardens of the Embassy in ..

Switzerland's Roundtable Diplomacy Oct 24, 2018 Switzerland is a nation known for its craftsmanship and innovation. As such, the country has embarked on a campaign titled Swiss Touch, which leverages traditional images of Switzerland while reintroducing the country as a forward-thinking partner in the global community. Produced by the Embassy of Switzerland, Swiss Touch is an event series and social media campaign that is now "On the Road" in the U.S. The campaign brings together American and Swiss experts in different fields around a digital touchscreen table made of Swiss ash tree, and encourages online interaction as a neutral ground for discussions. The video below documents one such discussion which took place in the desert of Las Vegas, by the Seven Magic Mountains—a group of fluorescent colored pillars incidentally created by a Swiss artist. That discussion focused on how American and Swiss stakeholders can provide sustainable solutions for a greener future? You c..

Skip to content Karin Baker Political Officer, British Embassy Vienna Guest blogger for Leigh Turner Part of UK in Austria 11th August 2020 Vienna, Austria Good news for students in Austria and the UK The UK education sector is one of the most popular destinations for international – EU and non-EU – students to study abroad. Worldwide, only the US attracts larger numbers. Academics like working in the UK, too: in 2017-18, 20% of staff working at UK higher education institutions were international, with almost 60% of that 20% coming from the EU. UK higher education has a well-established reputation for high quality. There are four UK providers amongst the top ten in the world, and 18 providers in the top 100. UK universities also have an outstanding reputation for world-class research. This has been showcased during this global pandemic, as many are at the forefront of global efforts to understand and combat the coronavirus. In 2017–18, there were 458,490 international students studyin..

Skip to content Karin Baker Political Officer, British Embassy Vienna Guest blogger for Leigh Turner Part of UK in Austria 11th August 2020 Vienna, Austria Good news for students in Austria and the UK The UK education sector is one of the most popular destinations for international – EU and non-EU – students to study abroad. Worldwide, only the US attracts larger numbers. Academics like working in the UK, too: in 2017-18, 20% of staff working at UK higher education institutions were international, with almost 60% of that 20% coming from the EU. UK higher education has a well-established reputation for high quality. There are four UK providers amongst the top ten in the world, and 18 providers in the top 100. UK universities also have an outstanding reputation for world-class research. This has been showcased during this global pandemic, as many are at the forefront of global efforts to understand and combat the coronavirus. In 2017–18, there were 458,490 international students studyin..

Skip to content Karin Baker Political Officer, British Embassy Vienna Guest blogger for Leigh Turner Part of UK in Austria 11th August 2020 Vienna, Austria Good news for students in Austria and the UK The UK education sector is one of the most popular destinations for international – EU and non-EU – students to study abroad. Worldwide, only the US attracts larger numbers. Academics like working in the UK, too: in 2017-18, 20% of staff working at UK higher education institutions were international, with almost 60% of that 20% coming from the EU. UK higher education has a well-established reputation for high quality. There are four UK providers amongst the top ten in the world, and 18 providers in the top 100. UK universities also have an outstanding reputation for world-class research. This has been showcased during this global pandemic, as many are at the forefront of global efforts to understand and combat the coronavirus. In 2017–18, there were 458,490 international students studyin..

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 5th August 2020 Vienna, Austria COVID-19 vaccine developed in Austria – produced in Scotland “When we started to develop our vaccine candidate we needed to push; now there is a massive pull from governments around the world,” says Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of Vienna-based pharmaceutical company Valneva, during my visit to his HQ at the Vienna Bio Center. Work is intense at Valneva when we visit. The Austro-French vaccine company has been selected by the UK Government to deliver up to 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Department for International Trade (DIT) team here at the embassy supported Valneva from an early stage of the process. The vaccine will be manufactured at Valneva’s site in Livingstone, Scotland. While Valneva’s staff in Vienna are working around the clock to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, ..

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 5th August 2020 Vienna, Austria COVID-19 vaccine developed in Austria – produced in Scotland “When we started to develop our vaccine candidate we needed to push; now there is a massive pull from governments around the world,” says Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of Vienna-based pharmaceutical company Valneva, during my visit to his HQ at the Vienna Bio Center. Work is intense at Valneva when we visit. The Austro-French vaccine company has been selected by the UK Government to deliver up to 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Department for International Trade (DIT) team here at the embassy supported Valneva from an early stage of the process. The vaccine will be manufactured at Valneva’s site in Livingstone, Scotland. While Valneva’s staff in Vienna are working around the clock to develop a vaccine for COVID-19,..

Skip to content Bob Last Deputy Head, UK Mission Political Team 30th July 2020 Geneva, Switzerland Councils Completed These are such strange days. We still don’t know if this will prove to be a painful but relatively short-lived episode of global distress or if we’re in this for the much longer haul. Will we look back on this as a defining moment of international cooperation to overcome one of the greatest health challenges in human history? Or will future evolutionary palaeontologists look back on this period with fascination, as the point at which humans began to develop opposable digits on their elbows to overcome tricky door handles without using their hands? Since the Council went on hold in March, the world has become so profoundly different in so many ways that I’ve been finding any element of pre-COVID familiarity quite comforting. So having the Council go about its business over the last two months has been reassuringly exhausting. For those who haven’t been following closely..

Young professionals around the world are striving to compete in today’s global economy. As individuals have become more interconnected with their counterparts across the...

Skip to content Miriam Escofet 25th July 2020 Painting Her Majesty Image ©Aliona Adrianova During my first meeting with Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Simon McDonald in March 2019, when we discussed ideas for the portrait of The Queen that he wanted to commission, I was delighted to hear that he wanted it to feel intimate. He wanted to express Her Majesty’s humanity, rather than creating a more traditional, grand, regal representation. Her Majesty has a close and longstanding relationship with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Her reign is already the longest of any monarch in British history, taking in 14 different Prime Ministers and 13 US Presidents. The Queen has received thousands of foreign Ambassadors and she has personal experience of nearly every country that the UK has bilateral relations with, having undertaken State Visits overseas to over 100 countries. The Queen has hosted 111 incoming State Visits during her reign, from 62 different countries to the UK...