On 13 June 2017, he was appointed a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. At the FCO his formal responsibilities included: Asia, Australasia/Pacific, Communications (public diplomacy and scholarship), British Council, Economic Diplomacy (including international energy strategy; climate change; OECD relationship; fintech/cyber and the illegal wildlife trade), FCO Services Overseas and the Prosperity Fund (as FCO representative on the Ministerial board). His work on climate change has included representing the UK government at December 2018's COP24 UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland as well as the San Francisco Climate Summit and PIF in Nauru earlier that year. He promoted UK expertise across Asia in green finance, renewables, carbon capture utilisation and storage, and electric vehicle technology.