The United Kingdom has appointed on Friday Mrs Kirsty Isobel Hayes as the future Ambassador to Argentina in succession to Mr Mark Kent. The British embassy in Buenos Aires will welcome Hayes in September 2021.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday he was “absolutely confident” in allegations by the UK and its allies that Russia targeted labs conducting COVID-19 research, branding the behavior “outrageous and reprehensible”.
Cruise lines have responded to new Foreign Office guidance which advises those aged over 70 and those with underlying health conditions not to go on cruises. Many have are contacting customers affected and offering further cruise credit.
Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service at the Foreign Office (FCO) this week assured that the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) and the FCO are “working on a common agenda, which is to secure the future of the Falkland Islands.”
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has been appointed as the UK's government's special envoy on media freedom, the Foreign Office has announced. Ms Clooney and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will work to counter draconian laws that hinder journalists from going about their work, the FCO said.
UK should end its control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean as rapidly as possible, the UN's highest court has said. Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands - now a British overseas territory - in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced on Tuesday announced a major expansion of Britain's diplomatic network around the world, five months before it leaves the European Union. For the first time, people from outside the civil service will be eligible to become ambassadors as the Foreign Office seeks to swell its numbers by almost 1,000.
The British Government has appointed Hugh Elliott as its new Ambassador to Spain in succession of Simon Manley. According to a statement issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mr Elliott will take up the role during the summer of 2019.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on a South America five-day visit of three countries suggested that Britain’s post-Brexit trade prospects could be bolstered if he had his own Foreign Office plane. Speaking in Buenos Aires Johnson said the official Voyager aircraft, on which the prime minister travels, was rarely available – and not colorful enough.
Thousands of government papers detailing some of the most controversial episodes in 20th-century British history have vanished after civil servants removed them from the country’s National Archives and then reported them as lost. Documents concerning the Falklands war, Northern Ireland’s Troubles and the infamous Zinoviev letter – in which MI6 officers plotted to bring about the downfall of the first Labour government - are all said to have been misplaced.