The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Belarus is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in the

Republic of Belarus A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

, and head of the UK's

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. The official title is ''His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus''.

History

Until 1991 Belarus was within the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. When Belarus became independent at the end of 1991, the British ambassador to Russia was accredited also to Belarus until May 1993 when an office was opened in

, within the German embassy, and for over a year the British Embassy worked out of a single, cramped room with its locally engaged support staff working off a desk lodged beneath the staircase. In July 1995 new premises were opened in a former geological laboratory, and are now shared between the British and Italian missions. Some staff, such as the Defence Attaché, are still based in Moscow. On 10 October 2020, the United Kingdom temporarily recalled its ambassador from Belarus amidst the 2020 Belarusian protests.

List of heads of mission

Ambassadors to Belarus

*1992–1993: Sir Brian Fall ''(ambassador to Russia, accredited to Belarus)'' *1993–1996: John Everard *1996–1999: Jessica Pearce *1999–2003: Iain Kelly *2003–2007:

Brian Bennett Brian Laurence Bennett, (born 9 February 1940) is an English drummer, pianist, composer and producer of popular music. He is best known as the drummer of the UK rock and roll group the Shadows. He is the father of musician and Shadows band me ...

*2007–2008: Michael Haddock *2008–2009: Nigel Gould-Davies *2009–2012: Rosemary Thomas *2012–2016: Bruce Bucknell *2016–2019 Fionna Gibb *2019–: Jacqueline Perkins

References

External links

UK and Belarus
gov.uk
British Embassy Minsk
gov.uk {{Lists of heads of UK diplomatic missions

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

United Kingdom Ambassadors