At the Platinum Jubilee marking the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK in London on June 2 (Photo: AFP/VNA) HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City Union of FriendshipOrganisations (HUFO) onJune 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.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of theVietnam – UK Friendship Association (VUFA) in HCM City TranHung Viet highlighted the significance of the events for the UK people.
With 70 years of reigning over Great Britain and the Commonwealth, QueenElizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-servingfemale national leader in history, he stressed.
He also spotlighted the fruitful development ofthe strategic partnership between Vietnam and the UK over the last 12 years, sayingthat the two countries have coordinated to effectively implement bilateralcooperation mechanisms and maintain good coordination at multilateral forums,especially the United Nations, the United Nations Security Council, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the ASEAN-UK cooperation.
The UK is Vietnam’s third largest trading partner in Europe. Thetwo-way trade hit 6.6 billion USD in 2021. Cooperation between the twocountries in other areas such as education-training, tourism, and people-to-peopleexchange has been expanded.
Hung affirmed that the HUFO and VUFA in HCM City will make more efforts to fulfillthe role as a bridge connecting people of HCM City and the UK, contributing topromoting exchange and cooperation between the two countries.
For his part, Deputy Consul General of the UK inHCM City Sam Wood highly appreciated the work of HUFO and VUFA in HCM City in promoting people-to-peoplediplomacy activities, contributing to strengthening the friendship and thebilateral relationship between the UK and Vietnam.
The UK Consulate General in HCM City will actively coordinatewith the two organisationsto strengthen the friendship between people of the two countries, he said./.
