Conferences

On Sunday, February 16th, 2020, from 11:00 am, the NTB Black Box Hall will host the conference The Romania to which I Have Returned, a conference held in Romanian by His Excellency Andrew Noble, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Bucharest.

About the conference
“I am very happy to be back in Romania. As you probably know, I stayed in Bucharest for three years, from 1983 to 1986. So I returned to Romania, but I have the impression that I arrived in Romania for the first time. I used to be in socialist Romania, and now it is a different country, with people living very differently from then. Already, in three weeks, I had some experiences that would not have been possible in the three years I spent in Romania.”
Andrew Noble at his first press conference as Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Bucharest 

About Andrew Noble
From 2018 Ambassador to Romania
2014 - 2017 Ambassador to Algeria
2009 - 2013 Berlin, Deputy Head of Mission, Consul-General and Advisor (Political)
2007 - 2009 British Foreign Ministry (FCO), Director of the Department for Security and Property
2005 - 2007 British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director of the Security Department
2001-2005 Athens, Deputy Head of Mission and Consul-General
1998 - 2001 British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Director, Department of Security Policy
1994 - 1998 Cape Town / Pretoria, Head of the Political Section
1991 - 1994 British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Officer, Deputy Chief, Department of Security Coordination
1989 - 1991 British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Officer in the Department of the European Community
1987 - 1989 Bonn, Secretary II (bilateral relations and foreign policy)
1986 - 1987 Seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany
1983 - 1986 Bucharest, Secretary III and later II (Politics)
1982 Joins the British Foreign Affairs Ministry

*
Ambassador Noble's career began in Romania in 1983, with his first diplomatic mission outside the UK since his employment with the British Foreign Ministry a year earlier. Andrew Noble spent three years in Communist Romania as a press attaché of the British Embassy, ​​three difficult years in which he suffered from cold, hunger and, above all, from lack of trust among people. As a foreign diplomat, he could not communicate with Romanians - he knew that the few who met and talked with him or other diplomatic colleagues were monitored by the Securitate and had to report the contents of the discussions. Not being able to carry out his diplomatic activity at an optimal level, the current ambassador took advantage of the years spent in Romania to learn the language (which he now speaks impeccably) and learn as much about the country's culture, through readings, but also frequent trips outside the capital, to Bukovina (where he still has a collection of hand-painted Easter eggs), Maramures or Transylvania.
Three decades later, in August 2018, and after numerous other diplomatic missions around the world, from Germany, Greece, South Africa and Algeria, Andrew Noble returned to Romania. He discovered a completely transformed country, with a free press and an impressive cultural sector, with a free and active population, who benefit from new opportunities after regaining freedom, with the spectacular collapse of the communist regime, in December 1989. He discovered an appealing country from a commercial point of view, with extremely well trained professionals, with high IT and language skills. He was impressed by its key institutions created in such a short time, which oversees the respect of democracy and the safety of citizens, and the civic spirit of this people, regained, step by step, over the last 30 years. But in particular, he rediscovered the people and the close ties of Romanians with the British, in the area of charity, culture, education, business or simply the strong bonds of friendship or kinship between the people of the two countries.
"The Romania to which I Have Returned" is beautiful, bright and, above all, human! It is altered and impressive! It is strong, positive, and above all, it is free!

# 30YearsOfFreedom

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu