The Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City held a ceremony to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the South Asian country’s Independence Day on Friday with the participation of newly-appointed Consul General Smita Pant and over 250 guests from the Indian community and diplomatic missions in the city.

The ceremony commenced with the hoisting of the Indian national flag by Consul General Pant, followed by the reading of “Address to the Nation by President of India,” and the singing of patriotic songs by ladies and children from the Indian community in the southern Vietnamese city.

Consul General Pant on Thursday met with many officials of the city, including Huynh Thanh Lap, member of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Standing Committee and chairperson of the Vietnam India Friendship Association, and Le Hung Quoc, president of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organizations, at a function to mark the 67th Independence Day of India after arriving in the city just three days earlier.

“We have a strong natural relationship, and the friendly relationship between our two countries have been further consolidated through important high-level visits over the recent past,” Consul General Pant said.

“These include the visits to India by Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City in November 2010, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee in March 2013, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in November 2013, and the visit to Vietnam by the Vice President of India in January 2013,” she said.

Regarding the economic field, Consul General Pant said bilateral economic ties continue to expand with about US$936 million invested by India’s private investors in various areas in Vietnam, and growing trade reaching the target of $7 billion set for 2015 during the landmark visit by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam to India in 2013.  

Indian’s Independence Day, celebrated on August 15 annually, is a national holiday in the South Asian country to commemorate its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on August 15, 1947.

On that date, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, raised the Indian national flag above the Lahore Gate of the Red Fort in Delhi.

India attained independence following an independence movement noted for largely nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience led by the Indian National Congress.