George Edgar

Last Thursday I met a team of intrepid Brits who are driving from the westernmost point reachable by road in Europe – in the Dingle peninsula in the West of Ireland – to Magadan in the far East of Russia. They had just spent several days driving through Uzbekistan, having gone north from Ashgabat and […]

At the beginning of the month, the Commercial Team at the Embassy ran a series of seminars and workshops in Nukus, Karakalpakstan. The Deputy Head of Mission Alison Beckett blogs below about the experience. Earlier this month I spent the week in Nukus, Karakalpakstan, working with the local Women’s Business Association to run a series […]

I recently joined a visit by a UN team to the Ust-Yurt plateau in Karakalpakstan. The UN were there in connection with their joint programme that works on education, health, prosperity and environment issues in Karakalpakstan. For me it was an opportunity to find out more about the UN’s work here but also to see […]

I visited the Banking and Finance Academy in the week of Earth Day to give a lecture about what the British Government is doing to make the UK economy greener – that is, more environmentally sustainable. Environmental economics is a fascinating subject. At the centre of it is the idea of “internalising externalities”. Market systems […]

I have visited Termez twice since the beginning of the year, once in February and then over a weekend in April. The first time was for business, meeting the regional Hokim, seeing the border crossing point where trains carrying ISAF equipment enter Uzbekistan, speaking to students at the University. The second time was private, so […]

This year I attended the official celebration of Navruz in Tashkent. Last year I was away with my family in Khorezm and missed it. Like the festive event for Independence Day, it features music and dancing in the presence of the President and other senior figures. But for Navruz the tone is different and reflects […]

Last week Dr Eric Morgan, a scientist from Bristol University’s School of Veterinary Sciences, visited Tashkent for a round table with the Academy of Sciences in Uzbekistan. The topic was animal parasites and the impact on their prevalence and transmission of climate change. I spent a fascinating morning listening to Dr Morgan speaking about the […]

Last weekend a colleague and I joined a trip by the Uzbekistan Society for the Protection of Birds (UzSPB – http://www.uzspb.uz/) to one of the country’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs). The IBAs have been identified as part of an international programme, overseen by BirdLife International, to identify, document and protect a network of sites that […]

Last week I spoke to members of the diplomatic course at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy about the British approach to protocol. I have twice worked in jobs directly responsible for protocol work – once when I revised the Foreign Office’s protocol guidance, to make it easier to read and to change things […]