The Diplomatic Dispatch

A far away country we should be concerned about….

February 22nd, 2012 by Paul Johnston

On 23 February leaders and Ministers from over 40 governments and international organisations will come together in London with the aim of delivering a new international approach to Somalia. Prime Minister Fredrick Reinfeldt and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will be representing Sweden. Why does Somalia matter to Sweden and the UK?

Mainly because of security. Terrorism originating in or around Somalia threatens many European countries, including Sweden and the UK. The London Conference aims to create new international consensus and energy on how to disrupt terrorism, including the movement of terrorists to and from Somalia, the flow of their finances, and delivering effective information gathering, investigation, detention and criminal prosecution.

There will be many other dimensions to the conference, with discussions on political, security and the humanitarian fronts. The aims of the conference are wide ranging, given the need to step up efforts to tackle the root causes and effects of the problems faced by Somalia across the board.

Engagement in Somalia is important for both the UK and Sweden. Both countries have large Somali diasporas and given Sweden’s experience and expertise on development and stabilisation, it will have an important role to play in the conference and its follow-up.

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Queen of Diamonds

February 7th, 2012 by Paul Johnston

You know what they say about London buses: you wait ages for one then two come at once. So it is with blogs.

This week (6 February, in fact) marks an historic day for Britain. 60 years ago, a young Princess became Queen.

It was a Britain very different from today. Still a colonial power in much of the world. Still recovering from the horrors of the Second World War. There was one, black and white, TV channel. Space travel was the stuff of comic books. Truman and Churchill presided in Washington and London. De Gaulle was in internal exile in France.

It’s extraordinary to think about how Britain and the world have changed since our Queen came to the Throne. This year she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. Sixty years on the throne. An amazing achievement.

I had the privilege of meeting her almost exactly a year ago. She was as intelligent, engaged, interesting and interested as everyone who has met her says she is. She is an amazing example of duty, discretion and devotion.

I was asked by a Swedish politician recently why Britain loved its monarchy so much. I said my own personal view was that it was partly that everyone loves a family story, with new generations sustaining interest.

Also that people respect the lifetime of service The Queen has given to Britain and the Commonwealth.

It’s also I think something romantic. In a world of business plans and business problems, of jargon and job cuts, there’s something attractive in an institution that represents different traditions and values.

But it’s an institution that exists by being close to people, which, day in day out, supports British business, communities, ideas and events.

Today, like every day, The Queen and her family will be out in the community, visiting schools, hospitals, factories, farms. Hundreds of visits, every year for sixty years.

May there be many more to come! God Save the Queen!

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Women and old people first

February 6th, 2012 by Paul Johnston

First, belated best wishes for the New Year. I’m sorry this blog resumes after a longer than expected interval. I’ve been out of town a bit, as I’m serving on a UN advisory group on the future of peacekeeping. More of that later.

And I’ve been busy preparing for and hosting high level visits. Our Minister for trade and investment, Lord Green, was here last week, promoting co-operation between the UK and Sweden, particularly in the field of smart grids.

He and I saw an Iphone app produced by a British company which showed in real time the electricity consumption in the CEO’s flat back in the UK.

The CEO could tell from the graph on the screen when his wife had boiled the kettle! All that is fun, but the real purpose is to enable consumers to make intelligent choices about when and how to use energy, saving bills and helping save the planet, too.

Talking of emergencies, when evacuating people in a crisis, the usual mantra is “women and young children first”.

This week my Prime Minister will be joining his Nordic and Baltic counterparts at a summit to put women and older people first.

Specifically, the Northern Future Forum in Stockholm on 8 and 9 February will consider how to unlock two under-exploited sources of economic growth:

- encouraging more women into senior positions in businesss; and
- encouraging older people to stay in the work force longer, increasing the output of the economy and reducing the pension burden.

The statistics are striking: although women are over half the workforce in many countries, they are only a tenth of members of the boards of big companies and hold only a twentieth of the top executive jobs in such firms.

For the ageing workforce the change over the next three decades will be striking – in most European countries the number of over 65s as a proportion of total population will increase by around a third.

We all have a lot to learn from each other in these areas – how to get more women into business leadership (Lehman sisters, rather than Lehman brothers…) and how to make employment more feasible and attractive for older people. You can follow the conference as it happens via the internet on www.sweden.gov.se/nff

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Europe: remembering and renewing

December 19th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

I was planning to write anyway this week about the European Union, following the European Summit at the end of the week before last.

For Britain, the EU remains key to our prosperity and security. Phrases like that can seem banal, the stuff of speeches and policy documents.

But the death this weekend of Vaclav Havel reminds us that for many tens of millions of Europeans that promise was denied them for half a century of Cold War Communism.

The bravery and vision of leaders, thinkers, writers and campaigners like him created the conditions for the reunification of Europe, surely one of the greatest positive changes in our lifetimes.

Britain wants a European Union that is faithful to the ideals of those who fought so hard for the changes that made its enlargement possible. That means a Europe committed to further enlargement, and to robust and effective external action, in foreign, defence and security policy, in work on energy security and climate change and – not least – on human rights.

In all of this, Sweden is an absolutely key partner. We both agree on the need to ensure the Single Market works better, particularly for businesses. It is only by keeping our economies open, expanding our trade and making EU laws more business friendly that we can get the economic growth in Europe that we all want to see.

Britain is and will remain a great place to invest, with all the advantages of the Single Market, and with important national features on top of that:

- one of the easiest places in the world to set up a business, according to the World Bank;

- 21 new enterprise zones around the country offering relief from business rates and taxes;

- tax on business falling to 23% by 2014, one of the lowest rates in the G7; and

- the great British heritage, culture and (most of the time) climate!

Like Sweden, we believe in a liberal, open, outward-facing Europe, which needs to be smart and competitive to thrive economically in the world we face today.

For that, we need to do everything we can to guard against a rigid, two-speed Europe. Countries large or small, inside or outside the single currency area, are equal partners in the EU. Maintaining that balance and fairness will remain a priority for Britain.

Very best wishes to all readers of this blog for a peaceful and happy Christmas and all that you and your family would wish for in the New Year.

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Supporting science

December 8th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

I’m sorry for the long gap since my last blog. I’ve been in London and otherwise occupied. European events have been dominating my time, in particular this week’s European summit. I had my say about that in Tuesday’s DN.

The other big event of the week here is of course Nobel Week, reaching its climax with the Prize Awards Ceremony on Saturday, to which I’m hugely looking forward.

It’s not of course disconnected from the problems of the economy, which I wrote about in DN.

The UK government sees science and innovation as drivers of economic growth. On 8 December the UK published its Innovation & Research Strategy for Growth. Despite the difficult economic climate the UK’s knowledge base remains the most productive in the G8. Not only have we maintained the annual science budget at £4.6bn but we have invested an additional £495 million in capital projects, and we are focusing on improving incentives for SMEs to innovate.

The capital funding includes funding for graphene – the star of last year’s Nobel Awards – the strongest and thinnest material in the world and a game changer for computer processing power and lightweight materials.

It also includes funding for high performance computing to support industries such as automotive and aerospace. We are also launching a series of technology and innovation centres under the name Catapult – facilities which will commercialise innovation and research in high value manufacturing, cell therapy, and offshore renewable energy.

We have been following Swedish developments, particularly the Swedish Innovation Strategy and the upcoming Swedish Research Bill, with interest.

And we have been working productively together this year at the EU level to ensure that the Horizon 2020 proposals for the EU’s future approach to science and innovation reflect our shared priorities.

We, like Sweden, continue to encourage more joint working between universities, the healthcare service and the pharmaceutical industry.

On 5 December, David Cameron announced £180 million to bring new drugs and medical technologies to market through a “biomedical Catalyst Fund” open to universities and SMEs.

Sweden and the UK are both strong in Medtech and in the biology that underpins drug discovery and combating infectious diseases as well as many other areas. Both countries want to see faster and higher quality commercialisation of new life saving techniques to patients.

So, as we congratulate the Nobel winners this week, we can be confident in Sweden and the UK when it comes to renewed focus on innovation and growth. But we need to be innovative in our approach to innovation and keep pushing those boundaries!

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Beach volleyball and business

November 8th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

There is probably only one respect in which I may regret coming to Sweden this summer.

That’s because in my old job in the Foreign Office in London I had an office overlooking St James’ Park and Horse Guards Parade.

Every Spring Horse Guards Parade is full of military bands practicing for the annual military parade that takes place to mark the Queen’s official birthday. So office workers like me were treated to free concerts most mornings in May and June.

That itself, I would not miss too much. But next August the spectacle will be even more amazing. The Olympics beach volleyball tournament will be taking place there.

So my one small regret about being here rather than there is that I would have had a front-row seat for a spectacular piece of sporting theatre, against a great historic backdrop, including the Old Admiralty building, from which messages used to go out to Nelson’s fleet in battles against Napoleon.

The Olympics and Paralympics in London next summer will be an amazing expression of the universality of sport. Not quite an A-Z of competition, but an A to W, from Athletics, Aquatics and Archery to Weightlifting and Wrestling. 26 sports in total and 20 sports in the Paralympics just a few weeks later.

The Paralympics originated in the UK. The first took place at the world famous Stoke Mandeville hospital, to coincide with the 1948 London games. They were inspired by the idea of helping rehabilitate soldiers and other athletes who had come back from battle with spinal injuries. Since 1976 they have been open to athletes with different disabilities and in London next year for the first time the Olympics and Paralympics will be fully integrated.

Some of the UK’s most iconic sporting venues will be used: Wimbledon for Tennis, Lord’s Cricket Ground for Archery, Old Trafford for Football, Greenwich for Equestrian events.

But the Games will also see the construction of amazing new stadia, accommodation and infrastructure in the East of London, much of which will be retained and developed for the local community and local business

Sustainable business growth was a big theme of our Olympic bid. The UK will be hosting not just athletes but Heads of State and Government and Heads of international companies from around the world during the Games next year.

So we’re working with UK Trade and Investment, the Government department responsible for encouraging UK exports and investment into the UK. The Government will be hosting a Global Investment Conference bringing together CEOs from around the world and “sector summits”, exploring challenges and opportunities in ICT, energy, infrastructure, etc.

I had the pleasure this week of hosting in the Embassy two Managing Directors of UKTI, along with UKTI teams from across the Nordic region. If you’re keen to learn more about the opportunities the UK and the Olympics in particular could offer your business here in Sweden, do get in touch with our UKTI team, via the Embassy website.

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We are all Cybermen now

October 27th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

For Brits of a certain age, our first contact with Cyber was probably watching (scared or smiling, depending on how credulous you were) Doctor Who.

Well, to adapt the celebrated Le Monde headline about the Paris riots of 1968, we are all Cybermen now.

The development of cyberspace is revolutionising our lives. It brings huge opportunities, but also unknown risks. The latter may amount to a global (for once the adjective would be justified) challenge and require a co-ordinated international response. However, until now, the debate around what form this response should take has lacked focus.

That is why the British government is bringing together representatives from many governments (including Carl Bildt from Sweden as a keynote speaker), with civil society and business at a Conference on Cyberspace on 1-2 November. The aim to begin to address how we can enjoy together the economic and social benefits of the Internet while guarding against the criminal and security threats and without suffocating future innovation.

The expansion of our networked world is in all our interests: for every 10% increase in broadband access, it is estimated that global GDP will rise by an average of 1.3%.

Globally, e-commerce is US $8 trillion each year. In an increasing number of countries, not least Sweden, we rely on the Internet for almost everything we do.

Our reliance on cyber blurs geographical boundaries, breaks down traditional cultural and religious divides, brings families and friends closer together and enables contact between those who share common interests or concerns.

The Arab Spring has shown how the ability to share ideas has brought previously unimagined changes and helped ordinary citizens to stand up against oppressive regimes.

But the rise of the networked world has also produced challenges. The digital divide remains: 95% of Icelanders have Internet access, but only 0.1% of Liberians. Two thirds of the world’s population is still unable to log on.

Cyber also provides opportunities for criminals, who use it to steal identities and ideas, defraud governments and businesses, as well as exploit the most vulnerable in our societies. The financial cost of cybercrime is as much as $1trillion per year. The human cost is even greater. Terrorists use the Internet to plan murderous attacks and flood chat rooms with their poisonous ideology to recruit the next generation. Repressive governments use advances in technology to violate their citizens’ rights.

We should not underestimate the difficulties ahead.

Some countries do not share the UK and Sweden’s view of the positive impact of the Internet.

Nobody controls the Internet. That’s one of its strengths. But we can’t leave its future to chance or to criminals.

We must start to act now if we are to protect and preserve the tremendous opportunities that the development of cyberspace offers us all.

In London, we hope to set an agenda that will allow the world to enjoy the full benefits of a safe and secure cyberspace for generations to come.

You have an opportunity to take part in the conference, putting questions to the conference participants, via Twitter or Facebook.

For more information on the Conference and its five themes visit www.fco.gov.uk/londoncyber

Via Twitter:
Tweet your questions in English in advance of the conference, or while it is taking place. Include the hashtag #LondonCyber for general questions and add one of the following hashtags, corresponding with the relevant theme, so that we can match your question to the right session: #social, #economic, #crime, #access, #security

Follow @LondonCyber for updates on the conference and the online debate.

Via Facebook:
You can go to the Foreign Secretary’s page on Facebook and ask a question in English there.

If you see a question that has already been asked, you can like it, to help us see what the most popular questions are.

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I have seen the future

October 18th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

Two events in my diary this week have focussed me on The Future.

First, I visited Ericsson yesterday. Ericsson employs over 4,000 people in the UK. It’s present in almost as many countries as the UN has members. Even more remarkable was that it was doing business in India and China over a hundred years ago – rather ahead of the curve in spotting what today we call emerging markets!

Among the many fascinating things I saw was a project called the “Social Web of Things”, a sort of Facebook for your household goods, car, etc. We saw an amazing illustration in which you could use your smart phone to check with a computer in your car when it needed servicing. The car would tell you that and then fix an appointment direct with the garage having cross-coordinated with your diary. Similarly you could check with your bedroom lights whether you’d switched them off, even as you sat on a bus half an hour later.

The nearest I get to that sort of interaction is ringing my blackberry to discover where in the house I’ve left it, so I felt as a medieval monk would do confronted with the first printing press!

Then last night I hosted an event to mark the Economist’s Conference in Stockholm for Future Cities. More than half of the world now lives in cities, with 5 million on new urban dwellers every month. I’ve been lucky enough to live in some great cities –Glasgow, London, New York and Paris. I have to stay that Stockholm is my favourite, but then, as all my Swedish friends and colleagues tell me, I haven’t been through a Swedish winter yet. The future awaits!

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Of sport and sacrifice

October 13th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

My main topic today is Afghanistan. But I can’t begin a blog this week without congratulating Sweden on a fantastic victory over the Netherlands and on securing qualification for Euro2012. Sadly Scotland could not emulate Sweden by beating Spain to get into the play-offs.

Now to the serious stuff…

I’ve dealt with Afghanistan several times in the ten years since the start of the internationally backed intervention in Afghanistan. In 2004 I was involved in initial discussions about NATO, including the UK forces, taking over from the US-led coalition in the South of the country. Afghanistan feature on the Security Council agenda in New York throughout my three years there. And in my last job in London, with overall policy responsibility for NATO, its operation there was seen, rightly as crucial to the Alliance’s future.

This week in Copenhagen senior diplomats from the UK and the Nordic Baltic Region, including my Swedish friend and colleague Niclas Trouvé, are getting together to look at where we go next.

In the media and among the public, considering the human and financial costs of intervention, people ask has it been worth it?

11 September showed both the threat from terrorism and also its indiscriminate nature. The core aim in intervening in Afghanistan was to deny Al-Qaeda a base from which to launch more attacks.

This has been achieved. Al-Qaeda has been significantly weakened and Osama Bin Laden’s death in May was a further blow.

We need to ensure that when the last of our combat troops withdraw in 2014, this is not reversed. For this, Afghanistan needs a capable, sustainable and affordable security force (as well as many other things).

Responsibility for security is being handed over to the Afghan national police and army. The first stage of this is going well. In Helmand, Afghan security forces are already completing their own successful operations, with growing strength and capability.

The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) total 305,000 and are expected to reach 352,000 in October 2012. The cost of the ANSF in 2011 is almost SEK82 billion, 90% of which is funded by the USA.

The NATO summit in Chicago in May will aim to reach an agreement on where future funding will come from. Budgets are under strain across Europe, but if we don’t all make the investment, we risk the achievements made to date.

Afghans, perhaps understandably, worry that international attention will wane, so we need to focus on long term involvement, as the UK and Sweden are already doing.
There have been some significant achievements so far. For example in Helmand there has been a 76% increase in pupils attending school since 2007.

Afghanistan’s neighbours in the region will also need to play their part in creating stability. The international conference in Istanbul on 2 November should be a positive step in co-ordinating regional co-operation.

Then the Bonn conference on 5 December will be an opportunity for the international community and the Afghan government to address together the issue of balancing the country’s finances in a sustainable way, whilst also providing effective services. Bonn will also be important for agreeing long-term international development assistance in support of the commitments made by the Afghan government.

A stable Afghanistan means a safer Europe. We all have a stake in its future.

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Etymological adventures – or the Queen and I

October 11th, 2011 by Paul Johnston

As a great Swedish poet receives literature’s highest accolade, your humble correspondent continues his journey in the foothills of the Swedish language.

One of the things that I was asked most in preparing for this job, including by our Queen, was why I was learning Swedish, when Swedes spoke such good English.

My answer, including to Her Majesty, was that it was a courtesy to the country that I was going to. Also unless I could read the newspapers and understand the broadcast media I would not be able to do my job.

Both have proved to be true. I do most of my business in English. And I would not dare to try blogging in Swedish, although I read Carl Bildt’s blog every morning.

But I do enjoy trying to speak Swedish and even though my “dåliga svenska” is far from good, it seems to go down well when I inject a few words into my conversation and/or speeches.

I’ve enjoyed also learning a bit about the evolution of the Swedish language. It appears that in the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries Swedish as a language emerged from German, so many basic words, including those for I and you and milk and leg and winter, come from Germanic sources.

Then around the eleventh century Christianity came to Sweden and the influence of Greek and Latin words, not least those for priest, writing, library, cathedral and school, all entered the language.

In the middle ages Swedish again became influenced by the German language and trade with Germany accelerated, so words for trade, town, growth, man, woman, citizen, and parliament all come from the Germanic tongues.

In the 17th and 18th century France and its language played an increasing part, so words for chair, balcony, office, toilet are among those which derive from French.

Where, you might think, is the influence of English in this “smorgasbord”, to use one of the few Swedish words to have made it to the English language?

Well, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the English industrial revolution and growth of Empire brought words such as job, sport, locomotive, nylon.

In today’s modern Swedish many English words are just taken straight into the language, i.e. copyright, container, designer, squash etc.

But all our languages reflect today’s globalised world, with coffee and alcohol (Arabic), chocolate (Spain), tempo (Italy) and banana (Africa) just a few examples.

For the moment, I’ll concentrate on trying to get the basic Swedish ones right!

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