This is the first time after more than 2 years of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that the Vietnamese community in Belarus has had the opportunity to meet again on the occasion of Lunar New Year to visit, share and encourage each other. This year’s Xuan Que Huong event has also contributed to motivating the community to overcome difficulties, move towards a better life, actively contribute to the development of the locality and foster the relationship between the people of Vietnam and Belarus.

In his welcoming speech, Ambassador Nguyen Van Ngu informed about the political, socio-economic situation of the host country, about the socio-economic development achievements of Vietnam and the good traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between Vietnam and Belarus; affirmed that the Embassy will continue to make efforts to support the people to deeply integrate into the social life of the host country, ensure the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese citizens living, studying and doing business in Belarus, and accompany the people in building an increasingly strong community, towards the homeland.

The Vietnamese community in Belarus currently has about 600 people, most of whom do small businesses and have stable lives. In 2022, Vietnamese language classes resumed after a period of interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Association maintains a regular working relationship with the Embassy, ​​coordinating to convey to the community information and domestic activities related to work with overseas Vietnamese. Many community members, students and pupils have supported the Embassy in major activities such as the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Belarus (January 2022), and the charity fair of diplomatic spouses in the capital Minsk (December 2022).

During the Spring Festival, the Minsk community art troupe, the Vietnamese language class art troupe, and the overseas students and community students presented a series of unique performances imbued with Vietnamese cultural identity, such as conical hat dance, bamboo dance, Ao Dai performance, and family reunion scenes of the Vietnamese language class students. On this occasion, the Embassy presented certificates of merit to the community students, overseas students, and the Minsk city art troupe who had achieved outstanding academic achievements in the past year and made many practical contributions to community work.

* The Vietnamese Embassy in Bulgaria has also coordinated with Vietnamese community associations and organizations to celebrate the traditional Lunar New Year of the Cat 2023 for the entire Vietnamese community living, working and studying in Bulgaria. The event has received enthusiastic response and participation from all representatives in the community, from planning to wrap Chung cakes, organizing performances and folk games to supporting traditional Tet foods to join hands to organize a truly meaningful reunion day for all members of the community.

The event took place with a series of meaningful activities to connect the community such as organizing a table tennis tournament to celebrate the Year of the Cat; organizing folk games such as lion dance, bamboo dance, tug of war, ring toss, picking democratic flowers… to let the young generation, especially the mixed-race children of Vietnamese-Bulgarian blood know and understand the traditional values ​​of Tet in Vietnam, to nurture the connection and turn towards the origin, which is also the theme of this year’s spring celebration event: “Spring in the homeland – turning towards the origin”.

Chairing the event, Ambassador Do Hoang Long expressed his gratitude for the enthusiastic participation of the Vietnamese community in Bulgaria; highly appreciated the spirit of solidarity and mutual love of the community; informed about the positive economic and social development of the country in recent times; hoped that people would take many practical actions towards the country; and proposed directions to develop the Vietnamese community to become stronger and stronger.

On this occasion, in recognition of the positive contributions to community work of associations, unions and outstanding individuals in 2022, Ambassador Do Hoang Long awarded Certificates of Merit to 3 groups and 5 individuals with outstanding achievements to encourage people to continue to contribute more to the common work of the community, aiming to build a united, strong and increasingly integrated community.

Along with 300 Vietnamese people attending the event, there were also many guests who have close relationships with the representative agency and are closely involved in the activities of the Vietnamese community in Bulgaria in local agencies and authorities.