UK to re-open its embassy in Madagascar and Somalia

Madagascar’s efforts to gain international recognition seem to be paying off with the report that UK will soon reopen its embassy in the country.

New British embassies will be opened in El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Somalia and Southern Sudan as part of a radical redrawing of Britain’s diplomatic map, the UK-based newspaper The Independent reported on Wednesday.

The report says hundreds of British ambassadors and high commissioners held a meeting on Tuesday with the Foreign Secretary William Hague in London.

He then revealed that this was the “biggest strategic diplomatic advance by Britain in decades” according to the report.

“We want to promote the long-term interests of Britain as well as to make the right decisions about immediate challenges, and we want to extend and strengthen Britain’s influence overseas… By 2015, we must aim to be a Foreign Office that is lean and efficient, but configured to match the realities of the 21st century,” the paper quoted Mr Hague.
Mr Brian Donaldson, the last UK ambassador to Antananarivo (2002-2005) told Africa Review that he was happy with the news.

“I count the day -- hopefully soon -- when the British flag flutters again on the soil of Madagascar,” he said in the capital Antananarivo.

The retired diplomat still lives in Madagascar where he runs a charitable body known as Madagascar Development Fund to assist poor communities.

Exchanged gifts

The closure of the UK embassy in Antananarivo occurred under the Labour government of Mr Tony Blair that transferred the whole consulate service to the neighbouring Mauritius islands.

Britain’s commercial interests are significant and growing in the country. The Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto made the biggest foreign investment in Madagascar’s history in 2005 in a significant ilmenite deposit near Tolagnaro, while other UK’s interests extend to platinum and tobacco.

Madagascar has a well-established reputation in the tourist industry as a biodiversity hot spot, and there are clear signs of an increase in the number of British visitors.
Officials at the Malagasy Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to comment, saying they were yet to receive notice from London.

Moreover, the Malagasy embassy in London -- serving the UK, Finland, Denmark, and Ireland -- had been transferred to Paris following a decision taken by the national authority in January for economic reasons.