Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department: Registered...

Records in this series concern UK relations with Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, the British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha, the Seychelles and the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). External relations of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies remained the responsibility of the Latin America Department.

For information on the appraisal and selection decisions applied to records produced by the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department see Operational Selection Policy OSP 13, Britain's Diplomatic Relations, 1973-1996 .

Arrangement of files is by original reference within the two annual file cycles.

For later files on Gibraltar see FCO 86

For later files on the Atlantic Islands etc, see FCO 44

For earlier files on the Seychelles and BIOT see FCO 32

For later files on the Seychelles and BIOT see FCO 40

For earlier Gibraltar and Atlantic Island files see FCO 42

From 2001 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Topics

International

Europe and Russia

Polar

Americas

Africa

In 1971 a new Foreign and Commonwealth Office Department was formed to handle UK relations with the remaining British dependent territories in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The arrangement was short-lived, as in May 1972 a number of joint FCO/Overseas Development Administration departments were set up to handle both internal development and external relations of the remaining dependent territories. The functions of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department were divided amongst them. Responsibility for Gibraltar passed to a Gibraltar and General Department; the Falkland Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension Island and St Helena passed to a West Indian and Atlantic Department; and the Seychelles and the British Indian Ocean Territory passed to the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department.