With just four weeks to go until Expo 2020 Dubai begins, Laura Faulkner, UK commissioner general and director at the event, is hopeful it will go ahead unscathed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The general mood is “full of hope”, Ms Faulkner tells The National, “because the event is a celebration of human ingenuity”.
“The whole world has been struggling and this will be the first time that we have all come together for a very long time,” says Ms Faulkner.
She is also upbeat about how the UK Pavilion and the wider Expo will elevate Britain’s post-Brexit profile on the world stage by accelerating “bilateral and multilateral conversations”.
“The UK’s position is clear: our intention to create new or develop the existing relationships with other nations is absolutely central to the core function of our government at this time,” says Ms Faulkner, who has been overseeing the project for three years.
“And pretty much every single one of the partners with whom we wish to develop our relationships are also going to be at the Expo. Where else would we be than with the rest…
