The Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organisations (HUFO) on June 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.

At the Platinum Jubilee marking the 70-year reign of  Queen Elizabeth II of the UK in London on June 2 (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of the Vietnam – UK Friendship Association (VUFA) in HCM City Tran Hung Viet highlighted the significance of the events for the UK people.

With 70 years of reigning over Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving female national leader in history, he stressed.

He also spotlighted the fruitful development of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and the UK over the last 12 years, saying that the two countries have coordinated to effectively implement bilateral cooperation 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. The two-way trade hit 6.6 billion USD in 2021. Cooperation between the two countries in other areas such as education-training, tourism, and people-to-people exchange has been expanded.

Hung affirmed that the HUFO and VUFA in HCM City will make more efforts to fulfill the role as a bridge connecting people of HCM City and the UK, contributing to promoting exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

For his part, Deputy Consul General of the UK in HCM City Sam Wood highly appreciated the work of HUFO and VUFA in HCM City in promoting people-to-people diplomacy activities, contributing to strengthening the friendship and the bilateral relationship between the UK and Vietnam.

The UK Consulate General in HCM City will actively coordinate with the two organisations to strengthen the friendship between people of the two countries, he said./.

Q.Hoa t.h / VNA