Roger Beetham

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Roger Campbell Beetham CMG LVO (born November 22, 1937 in Burnley ; † September 19, 2009 ) was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Senegal between 1990 and 1993 and also to Cape Verde , Guinea , Guinea-Bissau and Mali . Most recently he was permanent representative at the Council of Europe from 1993 to 1997 .

Life

Studies and beginning of the diplomatic career

After studying at the University of Oxford, Beetham entered the diplomatic service (Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service) on August 22, 1960 and was third secretary of the British delegation to the UN disarmament conference in Geneva between 1962 and 1965 . He was then from 1965 to 1969 Second Secretary and Trade Officer at the Embassy in the USA . During these two uses, the Treaty on the Ban on Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, Space and Underwater and the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty were signed after the Cuban Missile Crisis .

After his return to the UK Beetham was 1,969 employees in the by Robin Haydon -led Department of Public Relations of the Ministry of Commonwealth relations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Office) merged today's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Affairs of Nations ( Foreign and Commonwealth Office ) . As a European advisor, he dealt with the European Communities , but also with the negotiations on the four-power agreement on Berlin . At the beginning of his activity there, the Soames affair, named after Christopher Soames , the former British minister and ambassador to France at the time, occurred . He had attended a private dinner with French President Charles de Gaulle on February 4, 1969 , in which de Gaulle campaigned for a stronger position for Europe vis-à-vis the United States. He sought proximity to Great Britain through stronger bilateral relations and a loose grouping of the states of the European Communities and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), of which Great Britain was a member. After de Gaulle's views became known to the governments of the EC member states and ultimately also to the press, there was diplomatic resentment between Great Britain and France, as the French government declared that Soames had misunderstood de Gaulle's views, while Soames declared that the French side would tell the untruth, since the telegram to the British government was coordinated with France.

Beetham was then Chancellor of the embassy in Finland between 1972 and 1976 , which during this phase of the Cold War sought political neutrality on the one hand, but also a closer rapprochement with the Soviet Union through President Urho Kekkonen on the other . During this period he also took part in the preparations for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which ended on August 1, 1975 with the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.

Speaker of the President of the EC Commission and Ambassador

After being used again in the Foreign Ministry from 1976 to 1977, Beetham was seconded to the European Commission in Brussels in 1977 , where he acted as spokesman for the President of the European Commission , Roy Jenkins , until 1980 . In the meantime, he was elevated to Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) on May 28, 1976 .

In 1981 Beetham took over the post of Counselor and Head of the Economic and Trade Department at the High Commission in India and remained there until 1985. As such, he coordinated economic cooperation between Great Britain and India through the High Commission in New Delhi and the three Deputy High Commission ) in Bombay , Calcutta and Madras . Between 1985 and 1990 he was head of the Department for Marine, Aviation and Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1990 Beetham finally took on his first post as ambassador, succeeding John Macrae as ambassador to Senegal. At the same time he was accredited as a non-resident ambassador to Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Mali and remained in this post until he was replaced by Alan Furness in 1993. On January 1, 1993 he was made Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG). Most recently, in 1993, he replaced Noël Marshall as permanent representative with the rank of ambassador to the Council of Europe, thereby once again dealing with questions relating to European policy. He held this position until he retired in 1997 and was then replaced by Andrew Carter .

publication

  • Euro Debate: Persuading People , The Federal Trust for Education & Research, London 2005, ISBN 978-1-90340-3-235

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary theguardian.com, accessed April 22, 2019
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 43234, HMSO, London, January 31, 1964, p. 940 ( PDF , accessed June 14, 2016, English).
  3. ↑ Soames Affair . In: Anthony Teasdale, Timothy Bainbridge: The Penguin Companion to European Union
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46937, HMSO, London, June 18, 1976, p. 8577 ( PDF , accessed June 14, 2016, English).
  5. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 53153, HMSO, London, December 31, 1992, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 14, 2016, English).
personal data
SURNAME Beetham, Roger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beetham, Roger Campbell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Burnley
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 2009