OVs worldwide celebrate traditional New Year festival

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s diplomatic agencies around the world have held get-togethers for overseas Vietnamese (OV) on the threshold of the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, which begins from February 8.

On February 7, the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia held a New Year get-together for OVs in the country.

Ambassador Luong Thanh Nghi said the affiliation between Vietnam and Australia was lifted to a higher level, with the signing of the statement on strengthening the Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Australia in 2015.

He described the solidarity of the Vietnamese community as an important factor for Vietnam’s development.

The ambassador took the occasion to present the certificate of merit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Association of Vietnamese Businesses in recognition of its practical contribution to the homeland’s industrialisation and modernisation.

Addressing a meeting with nearly 300 Vietnamese expatriates in Washington DC and surrounding areas on February 6, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Pham Quang Vinh affirmed that 2015 marked a breakthrough in the Vietnam–US relations.

Appreciating contributions made by the Vietnamese community in the US to the ties, he expressed his belief in strengthened comprehensive partnership between the two nations in the future.

Previously, the Vietnamese Embassy in Panama also hosted a similar event, bringing together a crowd of OVs, students and enterprises living, studying and working in the country, and representatives from the host country.

Ambassador Vu Ngoc Minh briefed participants on the success of the recent 12 th National Party Congress and Vietnam’s achievements in socio-economic development in recent years.

He said free trade agreements signed between Vietnam and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and other partners and the country’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement are expected to bring new opportunities to the country’s development.

Hundreds of overseas Vietnamese in Sverdlovsk province, Russia, celebrated Vietnam’s biggest traditional event on February 5.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Consul General in Ekaterinburg Vu Huy Mung highlighted new developments in Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.

He spoke highly of efforts made by OVs to overcome difficulties to stabilise their life in the host country, as well as contributions to the homeland’s development.

In their speech, representatives from the host country appreciated and congratulated Vietnam on its Renewal (Doi Moi) achievements. They also underlined the significance of the friendship and traditional cooperation between the two countries, and welcomed contributions of OVs to Sverdlovsk province.

In the last days of the Year of Goat, Vietnamese Ambassador to Ukraine Nguyen Minh Tri visited and presented gifts to OVs in the country’s Eastern cities of Mariupol, Zaporozhe, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov.

He expressed his deep sympathy for the difficulty-struggling Vietnamese community in Mariupol city of Donetsk province, affirming that the Party and State are ready to support them in solving difficulties caused by armed conflicts and crises in the nation.

On February 5, at the office of the Vietnamese Association in Kharkov, Ambassador Tri gave gifts to 25 Vietnamese disadvantaged families in the locality.-VNA