UK to shift diplomats from Europe to Asia

LONDON - Britain's Foreign Office will move a quarter of its staff from European embassies before 2009 and redeploy them in Asia, where its workforce in China and India will rise by a fifth, a top diplomat was quoted as saying.

In an interview with the Financial Times published today, Sir Peter Ricketts also revealed how he had visited Manumission, a club in Ibiza, to see whether consular services on the Spanish island could cope with some sort of attack.

Ricketts, permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office and head of the diplomatic service, said his department was adapting to the new challenges of modern society.

"Both the relevance of what we do and the range of issues that are being worked on are greater than ever. I think the perception of the Foreign Office is out of touch with the reality of the modern organisation," Ricketts said in his first interview since taking up his job in July.

Diplomats on foreign postings specialised on a range of new topics such as climate change, inward investment, migration and terrorism, said Ricketts, describing these as "a whole series of issues that they weren't doing 10 or 15 years ago".

As well as shifting embassy staff to Asia, Ricketts said he was also recruiting a board-level finance director from the private sector as well as an IT director to bring in "professional specialist help at a senior level in these areas".

In a bid to learn more about the Foreign Office's consular section, Ricketts visited a number of posts overseas, including the three-person consulate in Ibiza, home to Manumission, a club that attracts up to 8000 British revellers a year.

"You imagine if there was a disaster there," Ricketts said.

"We have a tiny infrastructure on the island, but we have to have contingency plans for a real disaster involving possibly hundreds or even thousands of young people in Ibiza."

- REUTERS