The Queen's Official Birthday is celebrated as a public holiday in the UK on the first, second, or third Saturday in June. The celebration is marked each year by a colourful military parade and march-past known as Trooping the Colour.

The event takes place each June in London on Horse Guards Parade, the military parade ground between St James's Park and Whitehall. Many tourists and Londoners join the huge crowds to watch the event - which this year takes place on 13 June - from the Mall and the nearby Park and it is enjoyed by millions of people on television worldwide.

British embassies worldwide are allowed to celebrate it within two weeks of the date. In Minsk, we hold our Queen's Birthday party on 17 June.

On 15 June, British Ambassador Nigel Gould-Davies spoke at the press-conference organised by National press cetre for Belarusian media. Representatives from 4 TV channels and more than 20 newspapers attended the event, where the Ambassador provided an overview of the past year's developments in Belarus - UK relations. At the end, he took questions from journalists on a broad variety of topics, including upcoming Belarus - England football match, British foreign policy, role of the UK in Belarus' engagement with the EU, and other.

Transcript of the Ambassador's remarks is available here. You can also watch video from the press-conference (courtesy of BelaPAN).

On Wednesday 17 June, more than 500 guests gathered for the Queen's Birthday Party in Minsk. Follow this link to read the Ambassador's speech (in English, Russian and Belarusian).  

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