☕ Afternoon briefing on June 2

Hanoi, (VNA) - The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency.

-Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh extended congratulations to Buddhist dignitaries, monks, nuns and followers on the occasion of Lord Buddha's 2567th birthday (Vesak day), while visiting Quan Su Pagoda, the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS), in Hanoi on June 2.
The Government leader highlighted Buddhism’s companionship with Vietnam over the past nearly 2,000 years, saying the religion has played an important part in the spiritual and cultural life of Vietnamese people.Read full text

-As one of the countries most affected by natural disasters and climate change, Vietnam always attaches importance to fulfilling global commitments to disaster risk reduction, Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Vietnam's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), has said.
Addressing a high-level meeting on the mid-term review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which was held in New York on May 18 and 31, Giang noted that Vietnam advocates shifting from passive response to proactive prevention.Read full text

-Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit from June 3-4 is expected to further promote the sound relations between the two countries in all fields, including peacekeeping, education and training.
This is the first official visit to Vietnam by Anthony Albanese since taking office and only two months after the state visit by Australian Governor-General, showing Australia's great attention to the Southeast Asian nation.Read full text

-US Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive has handed over a collection of diaries and letters of Vietnamese soldiers, mostly of those who had died during the wartime in Vietnam, to their families and relatives at a ceremony in Hanoi on June 2.
According to the organiser - the “Trai tim Nguoi linh Viet Nam” (The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers) organisation, the collection comprises five diaries and 30 letters written during the war. It is part of the Vietnam War Legacy project implemented by the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive.Read full text

-Raffaele Cattaneo, deputy minister in charge of international relations of Italy’s Lombardia region, called Vietnam a “diamond” of Asia and an attractive destination for Lombardia enterprises while speaking at a recent business and investment forum in Milan.
Lombardia’s export revenue to the Southeast Asian nation last year reached 2.5 billion USD, accounting for nearly 40% of the total trade value between the two countries, Cattaneo told the forum.
He noted that Vietnam’s renewable energy development strategy will offer golden opportunities to Lombardia firms.Read full text

-Nine Vietnamese universities have been listed in the THE Impact Rankings 2023 released by the Times Higher Education (THE) on June 1.
In 2022, seven Vietnamese universities were listed in the ranking while only four and two were named in the list in 2021 and 2020, respectively.Read full text

-The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has selected the northern province of Ninh Binh, home to the UNESCO-recognised Trang An Landscape Complex, to organise a training course on environmental protection in the field of culture, sports and tourism.
The course responds to World Environment Day 2023 (June 5) themed Solutions to Plastic Pollution, with a focus on solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution.Read full text/.