Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Nadav Eshcar has been featured in a music video in which he performed a Vietnamese song to welcome the coming Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in Vietnam.

The ambassador sang the song ‘Ngay Tet Que Em’ (Tet Day in My Hometown) in Vietnamese alongside his local driver Nguyen Luong in a music video (MV) released on Friday, several days ahead of Tet, which is due on February 1 and will last at least a week.  

Ambassador Eshcar and Luong wore ‘ao dai’ (Vietnam’s traditional long gown) when they performed the song at many landmarks of Hanoi such as the Quang An Flower Market, Hang Ma Street, and Tran Quoc Pagoda.

The ambassador remade the song, composed by musician Tu Huy, with four verses in Hebrew based on the Vietnamese lyrics.  

The MV also showed scenes of the diplomat drinking iced tea, a street drink of Hanoi, and had a sidewalk haircut in the capital city.

It is considered Israel’s Lunar New Year greetings to Vietnamese friends, the Israeli Embassy said on its verified Facebook page on Friday.

"We wish everyone a peaceful, prosperous and cheerful Year of the Tiger,” the embassy stated, referring to the zodiac animal of the approaching lunar year.

Ambassador Eshcar said this MV could be seen as a small gift for the Vietnamese people during this Tet and he hoped everybody would enjoy it.

He wished to honor the friendship between Vietnam and Israel, and expressed his love and admiration for his Vietnamese friends on this special holiday.

The ambassador also shared that he enjoyed the atmosphere of Tet in Vietnam when watching the trucks carrying flowers and kumquats running around the capital city.

“Each culture has its own celebration of its New Year’s Day, but to me the traditional Vietnamese Tet is very unique,” Eshcar said.

During a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), the ambassador spoke highly of Vietnam’s successful response to COVID-19 and expressed his impression at the remarkable bilateral trade growth despite the coronavirus impacts.

Trade between Vietnam and Israel expanded 36 percent in 2020 and some 15 - 20 percent in 2021, Eshcar elaborated. 

Both sides plan to complete the signing of a free trade agreement this year, which is expected to further boost the development of their economies in the future, the VNA said.

Eshcar joined the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2001 and started his ambassadorship term in Hanoi in August 2017.

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