Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The British Consulate General celebrated the 89th birthday of Queen Elizabeth at the Consulate premises on Monday. Saudi officials, diplomats from various countries and media representatives, attended the event. Speaking at the ceremony, British Ambassador Simon Collis said, “Relations between our two Kingdoms continue to developed. Just in 10 weeks or so that I have been here, we seen the relations between our two royal families move forward with the visits of Prince of Wales Prince Charles to the Kingdom and the visit of the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Naif to London. “Relations between the governments runs firmly too, we have had visits here by the British foreign secretary, the defense secretary, the minister for development, the chief of the defense staff the vice chancellor of the university of Cambridge and more. “The cooperation that exists between the countries is not just between governments, but it's between peoples, in trade, in education, in investment, in health care. The universities fair in Riyadh last week saw more than 80 British universities participating, and as we speak there are more than 15,000 young Saudis studying in UK.” Ambassador Collis said, “This is a young country and young people are the future of that country and will be the future of relations between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia”. While delivering his welcome address Mohammed Shoukat, the British consul general, said: “This is my fourth year as host here in Jeddah and, every year I have talked about strengthening the relationships between the two Kingdoms, that is my job. But I want to talk about education for that is the connection of the future. Because I will come and go as a consul general, as many before me have, and others will come and do the job and will leave but for me, education is a great way of strengthening that relation for their future.” He praised the British International School in Jeddah and Jeddah Prep and Grammar School for providing education to British, Saudi and children of other nationalities while also providing a great start for their future in a very British environment here in Jeddah. We also have two centers of excellence in Jeddah and Makkah for men and women, providing vocational training to the future Saudi labor force. “We also have thousands of Saudi students studying in the United Kingdom, and those are the real future ambassador for the strengthening of the relationship between the two Kingdoms,” said Shoukat. Students of British International School sung the British and Saudi national anthems and a ceremonial cake was cut by the ambassador, consul general and other diplomats.
