Global conversations
Our Defence Attaché and I spent Thursday morning laying wreaths at two sites in Tashkent – the Sorrowful Mother monument in Independence Square, and the Volgograd Memorial Cemetery – along with other Ambassadors and military attachés, to mark what in the Soviet Union was known as Victory Day and in Uzbekistan is now the Day of Memory and Honour. Like Remembrance Day in the UK, it has changed from being … Read more »Memorial Day
On Saturday, along with the Rector of Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) and the Counsellor from the Russian Embassy, I was on the panel to judge the teams competing on a “Model G8” that the British Embassy’s Political and Public Diplomacy team organised in co-operation with WIUT. Sixteen students from top universities in Tashkent spent three weeks training and preparing for the event – each of the G8 countries … Read more »Uzbekistan’s First Model G8
Yesterday, 22 April, was Earth Day – since 1970 a day of events around the world to “acknowledge the amazing planet we call home and take action to protect it”. I spoke in the morning to students at the National University of Uzbekistan about the British government’s response, domestically and internationally, to the challenges of climate change. As always in my experience with university audiences here, they had lots of … Read more »Earth Day
I was very pleased to see that the Arms Trade Treaty was approved by the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. This is the culmination of getting on for ten years of work by nations committed to better control of the international arms trade, and by NGOs and religious groups who have campaigned relentlessly to push governments to take action. The history of attempts to control conventional arms sales through the … Read more »Arms Trade Treaty was approved by the UN General Assembly on Tuesday
Last week was mid-term break at my daughter’s school, so I took some time off to go with my family to Khiva and Nukus. The big attraction in Nukus was the museum containing works from the collection of Igor Savitsky. It’s no longer unknown, since the 2010 film “Desert of Forbidden Art”. Apparently large numbers of visitors are now coming from outside the country. We met an American academic in … Read more »Two Museums in Karakalpakstan
This Friday, 8 March, is International Women’s Day. The Embassy will be closed for the holiday, so we are celebrating today, on Thursday 7 March. The men in the Embassy are bringing flowers and cake for the women. I’ve been out negotiating the purchase of eighteen bouquets (as with St Valentine’s Day, it seems the price of flowers rises as the holiday approaches). I’ll make a speech to celebrate the … Read more »International Women’s Day
One of the things all foreigners in Uzbekistan learn about is the local bread – non, or lipyoshka in Russian. There are regional variations, but all on the same theme of a circle of bread with a crisp, flattened centre and a thick rim. Bread, we are told, is an inescapable part of every meal: the stuff of life. Quite soon after we arrived we found our local bread shop, … Read more »Bread
On Friday I met two officials of Uzbekistan’s parliament who were about to set off to London to spend a week there learning about Britain’s parliament and how it is run. They will meet the clerks who keep the work of Parliament running smoothly and support the work of its committees as they examine legislation and investigate issues on which they believe Government should be taking action. They will also … Read more »Parliament
I spent last Thursday and Friday as a tourist in Samarkand with my daughter, who has been staying with us for the holidays. This is my second visit since arriving as Ambassador in Tashkent. The first was short and official, taking in British businesses and the city Hokimiat and Chamber of Commerce: useful and important, but I was keen to come back privately and see the sights. I visited Samarkand … Read more »Samarkand
On the day of the first heavy snow in Tashkent, I went out to the former Abdul Kassim Medressah, which now houses artisans’ workshops and shops selling craft work from around Uzbekistan. The city looks very different under a fresh coating of snow. The Medressah is an attractively simple building from the early nineteenth century. The shops and workshops are housed in what were once students’ cells around the Medressah … Read more »Amid the Winter’s Snow