UK Celebrates Queen Elizabeth II's B-Day, Platinum Jubilee

The British Embassy in Cairo celebrated last week Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 96th birthday with a grand reception in the garden of the Ambassador’s Residence. The inspiring celebrations also marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, applauding her 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Senior officials took part in the celebrations, including key ministers and parliamentarians, and numerous businessmen and women, intellectuals, and celebrities were in attendance.

A topical theme for the reception was green growth and sustainability, in honour of the UK and Egypt presiding over the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as Presidents of COP26 and COP27 respectively.

British Ambassador to Egypt, Gareth Bayley, said: “We celebrate not only Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday but also her Platinum Jubilee, with seventy years on the throne. It’s an unprecedented achievement, marking a life filled with dedicated, selfless service, and celebrations are happening across our network of Embassies around the world.

Here in Cairo, we are also taking the opportunity to celebrate the UK and Egypt’s growing green partnership, with this year’s event our greenest and most sustainable to date. The environment was HRH Prince Charles’ number one priority during his visit to Egypt late last year, and as we approach COP27 in November, we are working hard with our Egyptian partners to raise ambition, and turn commitments into action.”

Apart from climate, the UK and Egypt have strengthened their bilateral cooperation in several other areas over the past year:

- Trade: Two huge trade missions have travelled between Egypt and the UK this year: EBCC came to Egypt in March, bringing UK businesses, and BEBA have just taken their largest ever Egyptian delegation to London. This is creating tremendous investment opportunities for British businesses in Egypt, and vice versa.

- Health: The UK donated one of its largest Covid-19 vaccine donations worldwide to Egypt, with 4 million doses arriving in January this year alone. We also invested more than £1m in improving Covid-19 response here in Egypt.

- Defence: The Royal College for Defence Studies have just concluded a major study tour, with a huge delegation discussing cooperation in defence and security with Egypt.

Back in the UK, in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, various events and festivities have been happening across the country. These have included: the Trooping of the Colour, the famous horse parade, which started from Buckingham Palace with The Queen watching from the balcony; a special exhibition examining the Jubilee celebrations of previous kings and queens at St. Pauls’ Cathedral; a Platinum Party concert, hosted at Buckingham Palace; and a Platinum Jubilee Pageant, featuring schoolchildren and their artwork focused on climate change.

The British Embassy would like to thank our platinum sponsors, Vodafone, Malvern College, and AstraZeneca, as well as BP, Lekela, BAE Systems, Unilever, GSK, Petrofac, Globeleq, BUE, PWC, Savills, Vitabiotics, GV, and McGraw Hill. This event was made possible by their support.