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This week at the Foreign Office

A look at the work of the Foreign Office and its embassies overseas this week.

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

Prime Minister David Cameron started his week in Afghanistan where he stayed overnight at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province before travelling to Kabul to meet President Karzai.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “disappointed” that Israel had not renewed the freeze on settlement construction. He also laid a statement in Parliament on reinvigorating the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth.

Today is International Human Rights Day, the Foreign Secretary sent a message of support to human rights defenders around the world. Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne wrote an article on his human rights activities over the last seven months. He also met Google executives to discuss internet freedom.

The EU Bill passed Second Reading in Parliament after the debate on 7 December in the House of Commons. The next stage now is Committee stage, where it will be scrutinised by Members of Parliament in more detail.

Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said there is a “serious and deteriorating problem in the Turks and Caicos Islands” in a statement to Parliament on Thursday.

Climate change negotiations continued this week in Cancun, Mexico. Our Embassy have in Mexico have been covering the conference day by day.

In recent weeks the Foreign Office has added five new Embassy websites to its global web presence: Timor Leste, Uzbekistan, Laos, Solomon Islands, and the Council of Europe. In addition it has also launched Arabic language sites for Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. Over the next two months the Foreign Office plans to add Post websites for Mali and the Falkland Islands and an Arabic language site for United Arab Emirates.

Published 10 December 2010