Peter Wilson CMG
Biography
Peter Wilson CMG is the Director General for Europe at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister from March to September 2022.
Peter was previously Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil from February 2021 to March 2022. He was the UK Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from August 2017 to September 2020. Peter was the Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the UK Mission to the UN, New York from September 2013 to August 2017.
Before this, Peter was the Asia Pacific Director at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London where he covered North and South East Asia, and Australasia from November 2010, and also served as Director of Strategy for the FCO in 2010.
Peter’s roles have included service at the British Embassy in Beijing, China where he was Political Counsellor from 2007 to 2010 and Second Secretary, Commercial from 1995 to 1998. He has also been posted as Political Counsellor in Islamabad (2005 to 2006) and ran the European Parliament Team at the UK Representation to the European Union in Brussels from 1999 to 2002.
Peter was a member of the British Trade Commissioner Leon Brittan’s Cabinet in 1999. He was Head of the Strategic Policy Team for the FCO in London (2003 to 2005) and served as an Assistant Desk Officer, European Institutions at the FCO from 1992 to 1993.
He is fluent in Mandarin and French, and speaks some Portuguese, has a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a Bachelors in Modern History from Oxford University.
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Director General, Europe
The Director General is responsible for the delivery of UK policy on the:
- UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement
- Northern Ireland Protocol and Gibraltar negotiations
- UK’s bilateral relationships with European countries, including the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans
As a board member, the Director General also gives corporate leadership to the FCDO by ensuring that the department meets the international policy priorities, Public Service Agreements targets and service delivery targets set by ministers.
Previous roles in government
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Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
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British Ambassador to Brazil
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British Ambassador to the Netherlands and UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
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Deputy Permanent Representative, UK Mission to the UN, New York