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Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

1st October 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

#HeforShe

The British actress Emma Watson is a UN Ambassador for women’s issues and she made her first speech at the UN a few days ago, launching a campaign on gender equality. I think she put her finger on a very important point, which is that gender equality is not a woman’s issue, it’s a man’s […]

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12th September 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

The Battle of the Marne

Today I represented the UK at the commemoration of the Battle of the Marne, which raged for 5 days from 5 September 1914 and was one of the turning points of WW1. From the start of the War in early August, the German Armies advanced relentlessly across Belgium and into France. The French forces, and […]

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1st September 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

Guest blog: Sir Francis Bertie meets Sir John French and Lord Kitchener in Paris

Sir Francis Bertie GCVO GCMG GCB

Rummaging in my library, I found the following blog-post left by my predecessor, with remarkable prescience, to be posted exactly 100 years later! It recounts a dramatic meeting that really did take place in the Residence on 1 September 1914 directly related to the conduct of the War, and in which my predecessor took a […]

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11th June 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

It’s #TimeToAct

End Sexual Violence in Conflict - #TimeToAct

We’ve just had an extraordinary few days here with the State Visit of Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – but of course there’s a lot else happening in the world as well. I talked before about my foreign minister William Hague’s initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict. Well, the big […]

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28th May 2014 Paris, France

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by Peter Ricketts

Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.

Commemorating D-Day: the past and the future

Next week, we will be commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Normandy, and, for the UK, we have the honour of Her Majesty The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in Normandy for 6 June, joined by HRH The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and briefly His Royal Highness The […]

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