MY interview with Sir Tom Phillips KCMG, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was in the informal setting of the sitting room in the Ambassador's Residence at the British Consulate in Jeddah. Sir Tom had come to Jeddah for the annual Queen's Birthday Party celebration, having already attended similar functions in Al Khobar and Riyadh. He is a slightly built man with an easy-going, affable manner and before I could begin my interview with him, he was already interviewing me! He is obviously interested in people, an attribute that would contribute considerably to his job as Ambassador, for being social is a requirement – and not an option - in his role. Sir Tom was born in Portsmouth in the UK and with a father in the Royal Navy, the family did a lot of traveling. His path to joining the British Foreign Office was, in his words, ‘wayward': “I didn't join until 1983. When I left school, I thought: ‘Enough of education, I am going to get a job', and I signed up to my local paper and became a journalist. After about five years with them, I went to university, and then did a Masters in Literature. A lot of my friends were then taking the Civil Service exam and encouraged me to join them. So I did, and I passed. It was a very motivating process.” Sir Tom began his Civil Service career with the Department of Health and Social Security where he worked for five years. By then, the Foreign Office was looking for people at First Secretary Level, so he moved across to that sector. He has since served in Zimbabwe, Washington (where he was dealing with the Balkans and Kosovo crisis through London), Kenya, Israel, and then as HM Ambassador to Uganda, Israel and now Saudi Arabia. Following his four years as Ambassador in Israel, he was nominated last year for his Knighthood: “I will be going to Buckingham Palace in the middle of May to pick it up. I don't know yet who will be presenting it – I am not sure if you know until the day itself, but whoever it is, it is going to be wonderful.” Sir Tom is not the first British Ambassador to have served in Israel and then immediately afterwards, be appointed as HM Ambassador to Saudi Arabia: “Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, my predecessor-but-one, had also made that move,” he explained. “When you are in a post like Tel Aviv, you are very ‘plugged in'. You see all the reporting from the rest of the region, so I had a sense of Saudi Arabia and what the issues were over there, so I felt very privileged. Coming to Saudi Arabia was a huge opportunity to try to understand it from this perspective. I had always thought that the Arab peace initiative, which the then Crown Prince Abdullah had drawn up and promulgated was – and still is – a key part of the equation. I have found it fascinating talking to Saudis about the Palestinian issue, I understand its importance here, but also about the whole range of other issues that are out there as well.” In terms of ‘making a difference', something that most people would like to feel they have achieved in their careers, Sir Tom explained his view that there is a formal and an informal way in which you can so this. “The formal way is that we have a planning system in the Foreign Office whereby we have a number of overall Foreign Policy objectives, and then you have a ‘Country Plan' to realize. Where you try and make a difference is moving a policy issue forward, and improving a bilateral relationship or, when you already have a good one like we have in Saudi Arabia, you continue working on it. With the informal one, it is what you bring to things as an individual that matters and counts. Where I always hope to make a difference is at that individual interaction where you meet people, and like them, and get involved. You go beyond the politics to friendship, and to a real dialogue and understanding between countries.” Unlike many British diplomats who come to Saudi Arabia, he is not an Arabist. “I have learnt some Arabic in preparing to come to the post but I think being realistic you would have to do at least nine months solid before coming here, and I didn't have that at the time. It would be an enormous plus to be able to speak the language, and fortunately I have an expert team around me, many of whom speak Arabic, and I rely a lot on them. They are a superb team of advisors.” In his years in ‘The Office', Sir Tom has met several people who have influenced his career, both diplomats and military people that he encountered in the Kosovo Campaign and in Afghanistan. “I think one of the ways one learns in the Foreign Office is modeling yourself on people you admire,” he said. “There have been some particular people who I think have had the great qualities and I think these are: staying calm – because sometimes it gets very busy and fast-moving; maintaining a strategic sense of direction and will, and not getting lost in the incredible churn of a crisis but keeping a clear eye on where you want to go; remembering where you want to be and working towards it; and maintaining a sense of humor which is critical.” From a social perspective, he feels that diplomats are very privileged. “You are meeting a lot of fascinating people in the global community because you are living all the time in a Diplomatic Corps. On the political front you are talking to Ministers and carrying out instructions on behalf of your Government, so you meet significantly interesting people in the society you are in. As a diplomat, you are in a position to feel the pulse of the society that you are in, and in every country it has been an interesting and exciting process.” Saudi Arabia has the largest British expatriate community of all the countries that Sir Tom has served in. “We have something like 20,000 Brits here, largely in the three main cities, Jeddah, Riyadh and in the Eastern Province. If you look at the investment figures, British companies have invested something like £20 billion in Saudi Arabia, so the expat community are making a significant contribution to the life and economy of the Kingdom. One of the Foreign Office's three main priority areas is Consular, looking after Britons abroad, so we try to stay as closely in touch with them as we can. Certainly, over the last few days with our three Queen's Birthday parties, I think apart from anything else, this is a very good community celebration which is clearly shared with Saudi Arabia. And we have got a lovely day coming with the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton where each of the ‘Posts' will be hosting an event involving the community. In Riyadh we are trying to arrange something like an English Country Garden Party, with several screens to watch the wedding,” he remarked. Sir Tom is accompanied in Riyadh by his wife – their two adult sons are both in the UK. In terms of family life in the diplomatic world, he explained the pluses and minuses: “There is the excitement and adventure of living overseas and when you bring up children, it is great that they see other cultures from the start. Of course, you face difficult questions about education – boarding school and other options – and as your parents get elderly, I think there are tough choices and decisions there. But I enjoy the fun and interest of experiencing other people's cultures, and seeing and appreciating my own from the outside.” There are things that he misses about his home country, “It is not a problem leaving it – I am very proud to represent it but I have always felt that I appreciate it more, and love it more, because I come in from the outside from time to time. I miss the openness of the country and the landscape, the freedom of the press and all the things that go with it and just walking down the street. But I am actually very happy to be here and I am not in a hurry to move on anywhere else.”
