Ambassador thanks American friends for contributions to bilateral ties

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang visits Merle Ratner, a close and long-time friend of Vietnam, and her family last weekend. (Photo: VNA)

New York (VNA) – Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), has thanked Merle Ratner, a close and long-time friend of Vietnam, and her family for their tireless contributions to the Vietnam-US relations over the past decades.

The ambassador visited Ratner last weekend, during which he commended initiatives by Ratner and her husband to help Vietnam improve the efficiency of people-to-people diplomacy.

Giang expressed his hope that the couple will continue to boost exchanges between Vietnam and representatives of left-wing movements in the US to further improve the mutual understanding between people of the two countries.

Ratner and her husband – Ngo Thanh Nhan, who is a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the New York University, noted with joy the ambassador’s sentiments towards American left-wing friends in New York.

Ratner is a leading left-wing activist in the US who participated in movements against the American war in Vietnam when she was 13. She is also co-founder and coordinator of the US-based Vietnam Agent Orange (AO) Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC).

VAORRC co-ordinator Nhan also joined the anti-American war movements in the 1960s.

He contributed to coding and standardising Vietnamese, Han Chinese and Cham scripts on computer. He is also the Vice President of the Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation in the US./.

VNA