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 HoangGiang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), has thankedMerle Ratner, a close and long-time friend of Vietnam, and her family for theirtireless contributions to the Vietnam-US relations over the past decades.

The ambassador visited Ratner last weekend, during whichhe commended initiatives by Ratner and her husband to help Vietnam improve theefficiency of people-to-people diplomacy.

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

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

Ratner is a leading left-wing activist in the US whoparticipated 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-Americanwar 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 VietnameseNom Preservation Foundation in the US./.

VNA