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This week at the Foreign Office

A snapshot of what has been happening this week at the Foreign Office and its embassies overseas.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Foreign Secretary has spent the majority of this week in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). While there he also answered your questions on Twitter.

Before joining the Foreign Secretary at UNGA, Minister for the Overseas Territories Henry Bellingham announced the postponement of elections in the Turks and Caicos Islands while on a visit to the area.

Minister for Europe David Lidington visited Moldova and Romania
at the beginning of the week, while there he was interviewed by Romanian news organisation Hotnews.ro

On Tuesday Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt met with Ambassadors from the Gulf Co-operation Council and hosted an Eid reception with other Government ministers.

Our consular staff in Spain trained with the Madrid emergency services, learning key skills to help them in their work as consular officers.

From our embassy in Washington, Robin Twyman blogs on whisky being the UK’s top agriculture export.

Ten bridges which set sail last month have arrived in Pakistan as part of a £10million pound bridge project. This project was accelerated to help Pakistan recover from the floods.

In travel news we provided advice for Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United fans travelling to Europe next week, covered strikes in France and Spain and gave advice for those planning to travel to Munich for Oktoberfest. We’re also giving travel advice updates through Facebook and Twitter.

Last weekend more than 11,000 people visited the Foreign Office as part of Open House London weekend. If you missed out, you can still subscribe to our history podcasts, which provide an audio tour. This includes a new podcast launched this week of Professor Keith Jeffery, author of the History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 speaking about his unique access to MI6 records.

Published 24 September 2010