@fleurmeston St Cuth’s was my college at Durham University ☺️
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James Sharp
1.6K posts
James Sharp
@JamesSharpUK
Former British Ambassador to 🇦🇿 🇰🇿 🇰🇬. Now retired.
Still thinking about it 😄 Katılım Eylül 2019
108 Takip Edilen23K Takipçiler
It's called St Cuthbert's Day. We celebrated it every year at school. The flag bears his cross. He was so revered by King Æthelstan, the founder of our Kingdom, that the king made a pilgrimage to Durham to honour him. Renaming it "Durham Day" erases our history.
House of Commons Speaker@CommonsSpeaker
Happy Durham Day. The Durham flag is flying in New Palace Yard today to mark the county’s rich heritage. Durham City is one of the oldest constituencies in England.
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@jfwduffield Best WW2 museum I visited was in Gdansk. Excellent exhibits and v powerful. Definitely worth a visit.
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No. The Imperial War Museum has been ruined. Gutted of its collection, which had made it one of the best museums of both World Wars in the World & been run into the ground by people without any background in military history. Its senior leadership team are a joke.
G. Željko Tonklin@TonklinDiary
both the girls are beautiful
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@SimonManleyFCDO @CWilson_FCDO For all the (accurate) reasons you mention, it seems like an obvious choice to me!
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An inspired choice @CWilson_FCDO is one of our most distinguished diplomats, a highly accomplished linguist, a consistently collaborative colleague and a dear friend. I wish her the very best 🇬🇧🇪🇺
UK Mission to the EU 🇬🇧🇪🇺@UKMisBrussels
We are pleased to announce that Dame Caroline Wilson DCMG @CWilson_FCDO has been appointed Ambassador to the European Union in succession to Mr Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby CMG @LindsayCAppleby. Dame Caroline will take up her appointment during August 2026.
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We are pleased to announce that Dame Caroline Wilson DCMG @CWilson_FCDO has been appointed Ambassador to the European Union in succession to Mr Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby CMG @LindsayCAppleby.
Dame Caroline will take up her appointment during August 2026.
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@Dicker_JJ But at least they kindly used the American spelling of litre in order to help Americans understand…
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@Ameer_Kotecha The Embassy building in Bangkok was a tired mess, but the grounds were a lovely oasis in urban Bangkok, and it’s a scandal that we allowed the demolition of the Residence.
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This next one comes perhaps less from head than heart.
There are compelling, pragmatic reasons to hold onto these buildings - they enable us to attract the people we need to influence, to convene and impress.
But it’s also an emotional thing - I just don’t want our country to fritter away all this history for a quick buck
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@MennaRawlings @FCDOGovUK Sure, though it can also be true that the institution isn’t good at prioritising and focusing on core interests.
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It’s misleading and malicious. The vast majority of @FCDOGovUK people, home and abroad, work their socks off to deliver for Britain - our people, our prosperity and our security. That might not grab the headlines, but it’s the reality.
I’ve left too, but would rather heed this ⬇️
GIF
Deborah Haynes@haynesdeborah
Excoriating criticism of @FCDOGovUK & Whitehall from a diplomat who’s just quit h/t @thetimes “It’s this constant focus on the peripheral & cuddly rather than a really relentless focus on the core of what the Foreign Office is meant to be there to do” thetimes.com/article/uk-for…
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@nigargoksel @ZaurShiriyev The EU suffers from strategic paralysis in the S Caucasus. Anti Georgia, pro Armenia, ambivalent towards Azerbaijan, and pulled in different directions by Member States and the EP. Basically MIA.
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Planned travel by US VP JD Vance to Armenia and Azerbaijan, rising US–Iran tensions, and Yerevan–Baku diplomacy in Abu Dhabi are pushing the east–west Middle Corridor into the spotlight. In his piece yesterday, @ZaurShiriyev outlines the paradox in EU versus US strategic prioritization: the South Caucasus sits at the intersection of Europe’s energy security and its relations with Türkiye, Russia, and China—yet in Brussels it is still treated as peripheral.
Somewhat related, another issue looms large in Turkey’s debates: as the EU presses ahead with trade deals with Mercosur and India, it continues to defer EU–Türkiye Customs Union modernization. Whereas, as @sinanulgen1 has been arguing, Türkiye is not just a transit country, but a nearby, diversified manufacturing and logistics hub that can anchor more resilient EU supply chains at a time of near-shoring, de-risking, and geopolitical fragmentation.
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@KonulikShahin Yes, I think the author missed the point. A rail link through Azerbaijan will merely remove the need for freight between Armenia and Russia to go via road through Georgia, which suffers extremely long hold ups.
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But one day he said there will be a direct link between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
And this is the aim of normalization..
It doesn't mean all routes will pass only through Armenia. That's impossible, especially if you want your region to be a transit hub.
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This is nothing more than a politically motivated statement. East-West trade still runs through Azerbaijan and Georgia & that has not changed.
One day there will be direct train between Azerbaijan & Armenia, and this is normal.
But it doesn't mean Gerogia will be put aside 1/3
JAMnews@JAMnewsCaucasus
Opinion: “Where is Georgia today? Trump created the Peace Council and invited all the countries of the region except #Georgia. Azerbaijan says there will be no transit through Georgia; #Armenia also wants to get rid of transit via Georgia and open a direct border with #Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has Turkey as an ally, while Armenia is very actively developing relations with the United States, the European Union, and India. Armenia and Azerbaijan have become key links in transit to Central Asia. But where is Georgia - on what platform? Whose ally is it, after all? All of this is explained by the fact that Georgia, under Russian influence, is not seen as reliable by anyone. And everyone is minimizing their contacts with it.” jam-news.net/opinion-georgi…
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@PeterWilson All the best! Let’s see if you can finally get a new Embassy building!
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Have now formally presented credentials to President Xi, to become the 14th UK Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China
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@Factsareafriend @Discoplomacy @PeterWilson Well, they actually have to be agreed by the host nation before arriving (but incredibly rare that a country would reject), then the handover of the letters of credential is a formality.
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@Discoplomacy @PeterWilson So that sounds like a formality?
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@KonulikShahin Oh, really sorry to hear that. Please give him my best wishes if you’re in touch with him. Hope for a full and speedy recovery.
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Our journalist friend Onnik James Krikorian was hospitalised today.
Doctors have said he has suffered a massive stroke.
We hope & pray that he will recover.
Onnik is one of the rare people who genuinely cared about the peoples of the region & believed in peace & coexistence
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@Dicker_JJ Haha, and hence onto a Special Relationship and a Strategic Partnership
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For the rest of your life, you can only eat food from one of these regions. Which do you choose?
For more maps: brilliantmaps.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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Honoured to be nominated to serve as the UK’s Ambassador to the USA 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 @UKinUSA
gov.uk/government/new…
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My latest article: Building The Architecture of Peace Between Azerbaijan and Armenia
caspianpolicy.org/research/south…
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Very pleased to moderate two panels at the @caspiancenter conference in London on “Energy Security: Navigating New Realities”. The panels explored what energy security looks like from different perspectives, and how to work together as the world transitions towards a green future
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@Dicker_JJ Haha how true. I did Middle East studies at uni, worked in Saudi for a commercial firm, had my first Foreign Office job in Egypt….and then never got another ME-related job at home or overseas my whole career 😂
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foreign ministry carefully ensuring Japanese-speaker is posted to Sweden
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The Trans Adriatic Pipeline began commercial operations 5 years ago. Since then, it has achieved remarkable success, now supplying 12 European countries. But - despite requests for more Azerbaijani gas - the EU has been stalling on the pipeline’s expansion caspianpolicy.org/research/energ…
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