\u0130PEK YEZDAN\u0130<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n British Foreign Minister William Hague announced last week that there would be a shift of resources in Britain\u2019s diplomatic missions around the world. AP photo<\/p>\n British Foreign Minister William Hague announced last week that there would be a shift of resources in Britain\u2019s diplomatic missions around the world. AP photo<\/p>\n The United Kingdom has decided to expand its diplomatic missions in Turkey due to the country\u2019s increasing international importance, the charge d\u2019affaires of the British Embassy in Ankara told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News on Monday.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s growing role in the Middle East, its membership in the G-20 and its becoming more vocal and active around the world were among the factors that contributed to the decision, according to embassy official Giles Portman.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are focusing on the countries that we think are going to have a global influence in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cIn all the consulates in Europe we will be reducing our staff; Istanbul is the only consulate in Europe where we are growing our political staff.\u201d<\/p>\n British Foreign Minister William Hague announced last week that there would be a shift of resources in Britain\u2019s diplomatic missions around the world. Besides significantly increasing its presence in emerging superpowers China and India, Hague said the U.K. would also make a substantial expansion of its diplomatic strength in Brazil, Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something that is going to boost our power of influence, particularly in the most powerful economies in the future. Turkey was identified as one of those important countries,\u201d Portman said, adding that there would probably be new consulates opening in several big cities in Turkey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe names of the cities are not certain yet but we might open subordinate consulates on the south coast of Turkey as well as in some big industrial cities such as Bursa and Kayseri,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul will also get bigger, with a combination of more senior British diplomats and senior Turkish staff based in both cities, Portman added.<\/p>\n \u2018Istanbul is very important\u2019<\/p>\n The growth in Istanbul while other European consulates reduce staff show that \u201cIstanbul is very important for us,\u201d Portman said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have actually been expanding in Turkey for several years now. We have a new strategic partnership that was launched last year,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what the foreign secretary wanted to do is to make a strategic shift by reducing some of our staff in some European countries and focusing on the countries that we think are going to have a global influence in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Portman, Turkey \u201cis a vital partner in NATO, has an important influence in Middle Eastern countries as an EU candidate and negotiating country, is very popular with British tourists and is a country with which we certainly want to double our trade.\u201d<\/p>\n All of these factors \u201cmake Turkey very important to us,\u201d he said, explaining that this is \u201cwhy we decided to focus even more resources on Turkey in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Portman said the new missions would focus closely on the \u201cprosperity agenda,\u201d which he said \u201cmeans support for Turkey but also support for British business. It is also about increasing our trade link and continuing our support for Turkey\u2019s EU accession.\u201d<\/p>\n The shift in resources might also create new areas of work in the consulates\u2019 commercial and trade areas, Portman said. \u201cWe want to continue our work on increasing prosperity and work on things like energy security and energy cooperation with Turkey,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u0130PEK YEZDAN\u0130 ISTANBUL – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News British Foreign Minister William Hague announced last week that there would be a shift of resources in Britain\u2019s diplomatic missions around the world. AP photo British Foreign Minister William Hague announced last week that there would be a shift of resources in Britain\u2019s diplomatic missions around the world. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":108034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[5546],"class_list":["post-33785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-william-hague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}