My name is Nick Baird, and I am Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Turkey. My wife Caroline is in Turkey with me, and we have three teenage children who live here during their school holidays.

I was born in 1962, and joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1983. My first foreign posting was to Kuwait in 1986, followed by a posting to the UK Representation to the EU in Brussels in 1989 as First Secretary.

My family and I returned to London in 1993 and I served from 1993-1997 first as Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and then as head of the unit covering the EU Intergovernmental conference.

I was then posted to Muscat as Deputy Head of Mission in 1997 and again to the UK Representation to the EU in Brussels as Counsellor (Justice and Home Affairs) in 1998.

We returned to London in 2002, when I was appointed Head of European Union Department. In 2003 I was seconded to the Home Office as the director in charge of immigration policy.

I am hugely enjoying my posting to Turkey. UK/Turkey relations are very strong in a wide range of areas including foreign policy, education, commercial, counter-terrorism and counter narcotics, energy security and climate change. We are strong supporters of Turkey’s EU accession process. Caroline, my family and I also take every opportunity we can to get out and about in Turkey to see the wonderful history and landscapes here.