Embassy celebrates Waitangi Day 2012

Our guest-of-honour, Vice Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh, speaks at Waitangi Day

New Zealand’s 172nd Waitangi Day was celebrated in style on 6 February with a lunchtime reception hosted by Ambassador Heather Riddell at her Residence.

Attendees included Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr Pham Quang Vinh as guest-of-honour representing the Government of Viet Nam, senior Vietnamese officials, representatives of the Diplomatic Corp, business contacts, alumni of New Zealand universities and training programmes, and members of the New Zealand community resident in Ha Noi.

In her speech Ambassador Riddell noted that 2011 had brought many challenges for New Zealand, in particular the tragic 22 February earthquake in Christchurch. But it had also been a year of achievements in other areas including NZ’s hosting (and winning) of the Rugby World Cup.

2011 was also a year of progress and success in New Zealand’s bilateral relationship with Viet Nam, with the Ambassador placing special emphasis on strong two-way trade growth, increased education linkages, the expanded implementation of NZ Government scholarship and other programmes of assistance benefiting Viet Nam, the signing of a bilateral Working Holiday Scheme, cooperation in the climate change area, ongoing negotiation of the significant new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and continued close cooperation in a wide range of regional fora such as APEC, the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Vice Minister Vinh also noted the “remarkable achievements in the Comprehensive Partnership between Viet Nam and New Zealand” in his address on behalf of the Vietnamese Government.

The full text of the Ambassador’s speech is attached.

We look forward to more successes and achievements in New Zealand – Viet Nam relations in the Year of the Dragon.
 

Attachment
Ambassador's Waitangi Day Speech-Eng.pdf