In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to Armenia, Judith Farnwoth, told about the consequences of UK’s departure from the European Union, expectations in connection with US President Donald Trump’s election, preconditions for deepening the Armenian-British political and economic cooperation, as well as the British and Scottish New Year traditions.

How do you see the future of the United Kingdom after BREXIT?

I think the most important point is that Britain has voted to leave the European Union; we’re not leaving Europe. We are not planning to step off the world stage. We will remain a close ally, partner and a friend with our European Union colleagues. We want to have as closest as possible economic relations with them and continue to work with them on a range of common challenges such as security issues. We have also other friends around the world—in North America, in the Commonwealth and other important countries—and we’ve still been a member of the United Nations, the OSCE, Council of Europe. So, we want to continue to play a meaningful role globally.

As far as the negotiations of our departure from the EU—of course, they haven’t started yet and as they do—we expect some economic adjustment as the markets get used to the new rules of engagement. But we think we are going to approach from the position of strength and resilience because we are the world’s fifth economy, second fastest growing major economy in the world last year, sixth best country as a place for doing business. So, we think we are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities, as well as face the challenges of leaving the European Union. So we will see what the details are. We are confident that we can make the very best of it. We ourselves want to maintain very strong relationships with the EU.

What are your expectations from the election of Donald Trump as a President of the United State?

We look forward to maintaining our strong bilateral relationship. We expect that to continue at the initiative of the Trump administration. The US and UK have a very long history of strong partnership. We are resilient partners and allies and we have a very strong track record of advancing our shared interests and tackling challenges together.  We believe that the relationship between the US and UK is based on shared values shared interests, shared convictions and shared commitment to freedom, democracy and enterprise. We expect that to continue.

How would you assess the recent level of cooperation between Armenia and UK and the programs implemented in 2016?

I think we have achieved a lot this year. We think it has been a very productive year in the bilateral relationship. When I arrived here just over a year ago—it was the end of 2015—I stated that I wanted us to continue our work with civil society, which we consider as very important. But I also wanted to do more to see how we could strengthen our partnership and cooperation with the [Armenian] Government and parliament, particularly as Armenia faces some important political and economic reforms.

You may be aware that the UK Government along with our German, American, EU and UNDP colleagues are contributing to a project to help Armenia implement the new Electoral Code. We think it’s really important. We welcome the fact that the New Electoral Code was achieved on the basis of consensus between the Government, parliament and civil society. And we think if it is implemented effectively, it will be an important way of raising the quality of and popular confidence in the elections next year. We think that’s crucial.

Also on the political side, we’ve been developing our dialogue with the [Armenian] Ministry of Justice and other agencies to see if we can identify ways in which we can share the UK experience of combating corruption as the Government launches refreshed anti-corruption strategy because we do have a lot of experience in that and we see this interest of the Armenian side in learning about that. And we also talked with the Ministry of Justice on work planning with them and with the Human Rights Defender’s Office, civil society and media representatives to send a delegation to the UK in February next year to see how the UK developed its anti-discrimination and domestic violence laws and to see how they are actually implemented.   

On the economic side, again we are talking closely with parts of Government in Armenia. In very practical terms, British business is already active in a lot of sectors of Armenia, from banking with HSBC—maybe the biggest example—but also things like construction and retail and pharmaceuticals.  Another area where we’re looking to develop economic cooperation is on the development of sustainable tourism in Armenia because we think that the scope for tourism here is absolutely fantastic: you’ve got so much to offer in terms of culture, heritage and beautiful countryside. Our economic cooperation is aimed [not only] at helping the Armenian authorities create an environment which makes Armenia more attractive for investors but also working with British businesses to identify specific opportunities for them.

Could you please tell about the British traditions of celebrating New Year? Are they similar to the Armenian ones? 

For most British people actually the Christmas Day is the focal point of the holiday season. I think, like Armenians, we eat a lot and probably too much on that time of year.  For most British people the traditional Christmas dinner is turkey or goose, lots of roast vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, Christmas pudding (it’s got lots of dried fruit and brandy in it). For many families it is important to listen to the Queen’s speech: she makes a speech every year at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.  And, of course, that’s the main day we exchange gifts. 

Christmas is for family and New Year is for friends. Usually people will have music parties in the evening. Most people will wait for midnight when we have massive firework displays. And we all sing the song “Auld Lang Syne,” which is actually a Scottish song: it means “time gone by.” Of all the people in the UK, it’s probably Scottish who celebrate New Year with the most fun fair, I would say.  They actually call it Hogmanay. Edinburgh is always the best place to celebrate the New Year. I think many of the elements of British tradition are similar in Armenia as well. But the big difference is that in Armenia the chances of having a “white” Christmas are a lot higher than they are in the UK.