Tag: Belgrade

12th June 2023 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

A Belgrade Diplomatic Fantasy

As a diplomat living or working in a historic building you find yourself thinking about the people who occupied the same physical and professional space before you. This is natural curiosity, interest in historic events and a wish to understand past relationships that underpin present day ones. I hope the Financial Times will forgive me […]

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5th June 2023 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

Dear Serbia

Dear Serbia, I first arrived in Belgrade in the mid-1980s by train as a student with a small tent. I caught a number 53 bus to the campsite that used to next to the ‘Kamp Košutnjak’ café. Had I known then what the future held for me, I could have looked across the valley to the […]

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8th February 2021 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

Boycie and Baldrick Get a Shot in the Arm

In this strangest of years, international cooperation has taken on a different aspect.   Border closures, quarantine and testing regimes have never before been part of my daily diplomatic vocabulary. Though as a well travelled diplomat vaccination has long played a small but important part in my professional life.    The world faces a common challenge that […]

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22nd January 2021 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

Counting COVID

Online Diplomat 13

This is the first blogcast I have recorded for several weeks. This is mainly because I had to travel to the UK for family reasons – a journey that was a story in itself. But there is another reason too. I have been spending my evenings doing an online training course. Diplomacy is a career […]

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27th November 2020 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

Bad Air Days and Silver Linings

The global skies have been pretty dark metaphorically over past months.  They have been pretty gloomy too here literally for much of the time. I’m lucky enough to look out of my window in Belgrade at trees and sky. Sadly though that view is often rather murky, with visibility limited to the great oak trees at the end of my […]

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30th October 2020 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

A House in Dedinje

Diplomats move house more than most people. We move between countries every two, three or four years.  We move backwards and forwards to and from our own countries. Even within our home countries jobs in our foreign ministries may be spread across more than one city.      I have lived in six countries outside the UK.  Some of my colleagues will have […]

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18th October 2019 Belgrade, Serbia

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

First Impressions

Sian and Richard at Konak knjeginje Ljubice

It’s a beautiful October day as I write.   As I sit in my Belgrade garden I see clouds of newly hatched late ladybirds, the first yellow leaves shaken by a mild breeze, warm weak sunshine and distant haze. Around me the hum of urban life is punctuated by hammering and bursts of drilling from nearby […]

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30th November 2015

Sian MacLeod

by Sian MacLeod

UK Ambassador to Serbia

Belgrade Barometer

Admiral Fitzroy's Storm Barometer

This week the OSCE moves south with its 57 national delegations from Vienna to Belgrade, capital city of our 2015 Chair-in-Office Serbia, to await the arrival of our 57 government representatives for the annual Ministerial Council. The event may not make the headlines like NATO or EU Foreign Ministers. There will be no high profile […]

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