MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Queen Elizabeth’s birthday celebrated in Uruguay

British Ambassador to Uruguay Mr. Ben Lyster-Binns delivering his Queen´s birthday speech at the British Embassy in Montevideo.

Her Majesty the Queen´s 88th birthday was celebrated at the British Embassy in Uruguay when Ambassador Ben Lyster- Binns and his wife Belinda hosted a reception for 300 invited guests.

 Attending the function were Ambassadors or their representatives from many of the countries that have Embassies in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. The Argentine Embassy was represented by the Deputy Ambassador and a senior official.

The choir of the British school in Montevideo beautifully sang both the Uruguayan and English National Anthems before Ambassador Lyster-Binns, in impeccable Spanish delivered his Queen´s Birthday speech.

He congratulated Her Majesty on reaching the age of 88 and spoke of her ´good governance´ during her 66 years reign.

He also spoke of the long-standing, constructive and positive relationships that exist between Britain and Uruguay and emphasized the priority that both countries give to Human Rights, while he expressed the need for the two countries to build-up their trade links.

Ambassador Lyster-Binns noted that the respective Foreign Secretaries Luis Almagro and William Hague had recently met in London while the Minister of State at the Foreign Office Hugo Swire had visited Uruguay in March. (Mr. Swire had previously visited the Falkland Islands and Chile).

Turning to Thursday´s vital World Cup football match between Uruguay and England the Ambassador brought a laugh when he said simply `let the best man win´.

The build-up to the game was highlighted by the Embassy `s ´World Cup corner` where guests were invited to have their photograph taken, either with the English team depicted in the background, or with Uruguayan great Luis Suarez. The innovation proved popular throughout the duration of the reception.

Below the Ambassador Ben Lyster- Binns speech:

Ladies and gentlemen

I am delighted to see you all here today. Thank you all for coming. And thank you to our sponsors Diageo, Juanico, Mini, Burberry, Lucas Calcraft  to the British Schools Junior Choir and everyone who has made a huge effort to make this event so enjoyable.

We hold the Queen’s Birthday Party so we have a collective reason to celebrate. To celebrate our Queen, whom we share with 15 Commonwealth realms, to celebrate the UK and what we have achieved together with Uruguay and what the UK represents, our values and culture.

Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal family have had a good year. The Queen and Prince Philip made successful visits to France, to recognise the sacrifice of all those involved in the World Wars and the debt we owe them. And to Italy, which included a historic visit to the Holy See. The young Royals, William, Catharine, George and Harry have extended the popularity of the Royal family massively. They were all together on Saturday to celebrate the Queens official birthday with the tremendous traditional Trooping the Colour parade.

Her Majesty The Queen has, as usual in on her birthday, awarded a number of honours. This is an important aspect of Britishness - recognising people’s service to the UK. It’s a matter of national pride that we have so many people who achieve so much, large and small.

And it’s right that we stop for a moment, recognise what good people have done and thank them. Whether they’re famously great talents like Maggie Smith, most recently known for her acerbic and tremendously amusing portrayal of the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downtown Abbey or top scientists. Or previously unknown, like the people who helped others get back on their feet after the terrible flooding in southern England earlier this year. All these people make a contribution to others and represent the best of British. We have a number of people here today who have been awarded honours in recognition of the work they have done for the UK. I remain very grateful for their service.

It has also been a good year for UK-Uruguay achievements. In a way that is not surprising. The UK and Uruguay have a close friendship. It’s been very interesting for me to see this over the last couple of years. Every single person in Uruguay knows something about the UK. Some people have a great affection for our historical relationship. Others for our culture. And everyone for our football – I’ll come back to that.

The point is that for over 200 years the UK has had and will always want to have a constructive and positive relationship with Uruguay. Since Uruguay’s independence we have been unswerving in our respect and support for this country. Where we have differing opinions, we make our arguments honestly and logically – it is our way, we are after all Anglo Saxons – and we listen with respect to Uruguayan arguments. And sometimes we have to agree to differ. But we don’t let it contaminate all the good things we do agree on. Like for example human rights. I am very grateful to Ministro Luis Almagro for being in London last week to demonstrate Uruguay’s support to the global campaign to stop the use of sexual violence in conflict.

We also recently enjoyed the visit to Montevideo of Fiona Wolfe, the Lord Mayor of the City of London. This helps us promote the trade links between our two countries and came up with the initiative to hold an Invest in Uruguay day in London to explain the Uruguayan market to UK business and the opportunities here.

I just wanted to say a few words about investing in human capital. This year I’m particularly glad that we’ve been successful in partnering with Uruguay in education, given it is one of the most important of priorities in this country. It is a challenge for all of us to improve access to and quality of education. The British Council is working successfully for Plan Ceibal in delivering online English language lessons countrywide. And we’ve joined with ANII to increase the number of scholarships for the best Uruguayan students to study in the UK. The aim is to support Uruguay in its drive to build technical capacity as industry and the economy develops. I personally am delighted with this progress – we’re tripling the number of scholarship available and I won’t stop there.

I said I’d return to football. Tomorrow is the big game. My wish is that it represents the best of two great footballing nations. As I also said, our friendship has been a long and deep one. I know that whatever happens we will be able to talk again - after a week or two. And then I can return to my big game with the help of my excellent Embassy team and all of you here. Building the UK – Uruguay relationship, so we both benefit, do better and achieve more.

I would now like you all to raise your glasses in a toast to Her Majesty The Queen. The Queen.