Prince Henry of Wales, Prince Harry visited Embassy of Nepal in London yesterday to participate in the bicentennial celebrations of the relationship between Nepal and the UK.
A week long ceremony was organised by the Embassy of Nepal in London to mark the celebrations, and Prince Harry joined the reception of the closing day on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen.
Prince Harry received a traditional Nepali welcome with a garland of flowers before heading to a special stage set for the occasion in front of around 200 invited guests.
British MPs, officials from other embassies and Nepali community representatives were among the audience. Most notably, British Defence Minister Mark Lancaster was also present alongside Prince Harry at the stage.
Nepali Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi and Nepali Ambassador to the UK Durga Bahadur Subedi welcomed and introduced Prince Harry for his short speech.
Prince Harry praised the beauty of Nepal and expressed interest in visiting Nepal soon in his brief speech. “Nepal is a truly captivating country and one which I hope more people will visit to experience for themselves,” said Prince Harry.
He further praised the unbreakable spirit and resilience of the Nepali people for the reconstruction efforts after the devastating earthquake in 2014. (Prince Williams had visited Embassy of Nepal back then to express his condolences).
Prince Harry who had visited Nepal almost a year later joined the relief works himself. He expressed in his speech that he was pleased to see how effective the disaster response measures were and assured that the British people will stand along the reconstruction journey.
His involvement to support the earthquake relief works during the end of his trip is still featured on his homepage.
The full transcript of his speech was later published and tweeted by the Kensington Palace.
Read Prince Harry's speech at the commemorations marking 200 years of UK-Nepal relations 🇬🇧🇳🇵 https://t.co/6pXO85uFgf
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 20, 2017
Prince Harry then unveiled the photographs of the 13 Gurkha soldiers who have received the Victoria Cross inside the embassy of Nepal. He also met and had a quick chat with his comrades that served along in the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles in Afghanistan for three months in 2007/08.
Earlier in his speech he had mentioned, “Last week, I joined my Father in presenting operational service medals to officers and men from 2nd Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, some of whom are with us here today.”
Prince Harry was then greeted with traditional Nepali performances and popular Khukuri dance by the Gurkhas.
His hour-long visit came to an end with a toast of reiterating Prince Harry’s words of looking forward to the continued close bond of Nepal and UK friendship for centuries to come.
Here’re some of the photos that I managed to take at the event. You can see all of the photos from the event on my Facebook Page album.
I hope you like the photos. Let me know if anything in the comments below.