In gratitude and honor for these contributions of Ambassador Antonio Alessandro, on July 13 in Hanoi, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), awarded him the medal "For peace and friendship among nations". This is VUFO's highest award.

Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga (R) presents the medal "For peace and friendship among nations" to Ambassador Antonio Alessandro (Photo: Thu Ha)

Speaking at the ceremony, VUFO President Nguyen Phuong Nga highly appreciates the contributions of Italian Ambassador Antonio Alessandro in strengthening Vietnam - Italy relations.

During Ambassador Antonio's term of office, the Italian side promoted the signing of bilateral cooperation documents in many fields, such as the Action Plan to implement the Strategic Partnership in 2020-2022, Science and Technology cooperation plan for the period of 2021 - 2023, Education cooperation action plan for the period of 2019 - 2022, Cultural cooperation program for the period 2018 - 2021. The two sides promote the extension and signing of cooperation agreements on security, crime prevention, energy, finance, and justice, and extended Distribution of projects on development cooperation in the field of water management, and health in Quang Tri, Hue.

Ambassador Antonio also connects units to organizing trade and investment promotion activities, promoting Italian businesses to expand cooperation in the Vietnamese market, which played an important role in the success of the Italy - ASEAN business forum chaired by the Prime Ministers of both sides in 2019.

Under his direction, the Embassy of Italy to Vietnam and the Casa Italia have held many meaningful activities, contributing to promoting cooperation relations, enhancing exchanges, and promoting culture, sports, and tourism exchanges between Vietnam and Italy.

Namely, the Embassy and the Casa Italia coordinated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and related agencies to organize art and cultural events to introduce and promote Italian culture as well as strengthen the friendship and solidarity between the two peoples, such as the Italian Film Festival (2020, 2022), Inferno V exhibition (June 2021); Exhibition 'Italian Routes' (August 2021); Italian Design Day in Vietnam (2021-2023); ceramic exhibition with Bat Trang Museum (May 2022); Italian Food Week (November 2022); performances by the Italian dance group Artemis Danza (September 2022), the Luca Ciarla Trio (February 2023), the Valentine Concert (February 2023), an opera named Cavalleria Rusticana (April 2023).

Delegates at the event (Photo: Thu Ha)

Ambassador Antonio Alessandro constantly supported and participated in cultural and people-to-people exchanges organized by the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations and the Vietnam - Italy Friendship Association, such as the Friendship exchange to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of Italy's Republic Day (in 2019), the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam - Italy Friendship Association (in 2021), and the friendship exchange "Half a Century of Vietnamese - Italian people solidarity: Peoples and Photos" on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Italy (in 2023), the International Conference "Developing an innovative startup ecosystem in Da Nang and the role of people-to-people diplomacy in connecting and mobilizing resources" (in 2023).

During the difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambassador Antonio Alessandro actively promoted the Italian government to assist nearly 3 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19 for Vietnam through the COVAX Facility. Italy also supported arranging a special flight of the National Energy Group of Italy to carry out Vietnamese citizens back home.

These activities have contributed to increasing mutual understanding and fostering the people-to-people friendship between the two countries.

Ambassador Antonio Alessandro expressed his honor to receive VUFO's highest award. He spoke highly of the two countries' close, meaningful people-to-people relations which are a clear demonstration of the two countries' bilateral diplomatic relations. The Italian Ambassador thanked VUFO and President Nguyen Phuong Nga for actively cooperating and supporting the Embassy in organizing activities in Vietnam. He appreciates VUFO's effort to boost the two countries' people-to-people relations in a humane, simple but effective way. Ambassador Antonio Alessandro said he would continue to contribute to the Vietnam-Italy friendship.

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