Get-Together in HCM City Marks 96th Birthday of UK Queen

The annual celebration takes place in the context Vietnam and the UK are enjoying sound relations, particularly in economy, trade, and education-training. Source: HUFO

The Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organisations (HUFO) and the city's Vietnam – UK Friendship Association on June 17 held a ceremony to celebrate the 96th birthday anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and the Platinum Jubilee marking her 70-year reign, VNA reported.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of the HCM City's Vietnam – UK Friendship Association Tran Hung Viet highlighted the significance of the events for the UK people.

With 70 years of reigning over Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving female national leader in history, he stressed.

He also spotlighted the fruitful development of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and the UK over the last 12 years, saying that the two countries have coordinated to effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms and maintain good coordination at multilateral forums, especially the UN, the UN Security Council, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the ASEAN-UK cooperation.

The UK is Vietnam’s third largest trading partner in Europe. The two-way trade hit USD 6.6 billion in 2021. Cooperation between the two countries in other areas such as education-training, tourism, and people-to-people exchange has been expanded.

HCM City is running various effective cooperative programmes in education and training with the UK.

Hung affirmed that the HUFO and Friendship Association will make more efforts to fulfill the role as a bridge connecting people of HCM City and the UK, contributing to promoting exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

For his part, Deputy Consul General of the UK in HCM City Sam Wood highly appreciated the work of HUFO and VUFA in HCM City in promoting people-to-people diplomacy activities, contributing to strengthening the friendship and the bilateral relationship between the UK and Vietnam.

The UK Consulate General in HCM City will actively coordinate with the two organisations to strengthen the friendship between people of the two countries, he said.

Executive committee of the chapter of the HCM City's Vietnam – UK Friendship Association at Ton Duc Thang University. Source: HUFO

The HCM City's Vietnam – UK Friendship Association also announced the decision to establish and launch a chapter at Ton Duc Thang University.

Excited about the establishment of the chapter, Dr. Dinh Hoang Bach, acting director of the International Cooperation, Research & Training Institute and the chapter's head, thanked the Chairman of the friendship association and the UK's Deputy Consul General along with the delegates present at the meeting.

He also pledged that the association would further promote exchanges, diplomacy and friendship between the two countries.

One of the main initiatives of the Platinum Jubilee is the Queen’s Green Canopy, which encourages people around the world to plant more trees and contribute to the fight against climate change.

In support of this initiative, the British Embassy in Hanoi in collaboration with Mainstream Renewable Power Company and the Green Happiness Program had launched a fundraising initiative to jointly plant mangroves on 10 hectares of mudflats in Soc Trang province.

As of June 2, the campaign has raised an amount of nearly VND 71 million, which is equivalent to approximately 634 trees.

Vietnam and the UK set up their diplomatic ties in 1973. The two countries will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties in 2023.

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