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London (VNA) - The Vietnamese Embassy in the UK and the Newhaven Town Council inaugurated the renovation of a bronze statue of President Ho Chi Minh at the Newhaven Museum on October 25 as part of activities to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the leader’s arrival in the UK (1913-2023) and the 50th founding anniversary of Vietnam-UK diplomatic relations.

The statue was a gift from the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Management Board to the Newhaven Museum via the Embassy of Vietnam in the UK in 2013 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh’s arrival in the UK. The renovation of the statue was implemented by the embassy with the support from the Newhaven Museum and the Vietnamese community in the European nation.

Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador Nguyen Hoang Long recalled President Ho Chi Minh’s 30-year journey around the world to find a path to liberate the country, including his 4-year stay in the UK, starting May 1913.
 

The ambassador stressed that even though the period President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in the UK was not long, it was significant in shaping his political ideology, and laid the foundation for the present flourishing strategic partnership between the two countries.

He pointed to the special link between President Ho Chi Minh and Newhaven, the first stop of his arrival in the UK, expressing gratitude to the Mayor and the Council of Newhaven and the Vietnamese community in the UK for their wholehearted support over the past years to preserve relics related to President Ho Chi Minh as well as their help to the statue renovation.

The diplomat hoped in the future, the Newhaven council will continue to support the preservation of these relics as well as have new projects to build or renovate works honouring President Ho Chi Minh in Newhaven, contributing to further promoting the relationship between the two countries.

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Mayor of Newhaven Julie Carr welcomed Vietnamese guests to the ceremony, expressing a hope that after this special event, Newhaven will receive more visitors from Vietnam, further tightening the relations between Newhaven and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Newhaven Museum Graham Amy said he was grateful to the people of Vietnam for the beautiful bronze statue of President Ho Chi Minh, which, according to him, now looks resplendent on the new stand after the renovation.

Amy said President Ho’s connection to Newhaven went back more than a century to 1913 when he worked as a pastry chef on a cross-channel ferry between the French town of Dieppe and Newhaven.

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Peter Rhodes, a local resident who has lived in Newhaven since 1973, said it was special to him to be invited by the Vietnamese Ambassador to attend the ceremony and meet lovely Vietnamese people.
Rhodes stressed that as a young person in the 1960s, he admired Vietnam and its people for their resistance war and was proud of Newhaven’s links to President Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam.

Before the inaugural ceremony at the Newhaven Museum, the Embassy of Vietnam in the UK and the visiting Vietnamese delegations laid flowers at the foundation stone of the memorial of President Ho Chi Minh in West Quay of Newhaven Harbour./.