Monrovia, Liberia - Vice President Chief/Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has hailed the outstanding bilateral relations between Liberia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Vice President Howard-Taylor said the two countries have seen many transformational developments in relations, especially during the reign of Her Majesty QUEEN ELIZABETH, II.

She added the relationship between the two countries continues to sit at an all-time crest of cordiality and friendship.

The Liberian Vice President explained that the two countries remain unreservedly committed to ensuring peace and security for all mankind and the strengthening of good governance and the rule of law.

According to a release from the Office of the Vice President, Chief Howard-Taylor was speaking Thursday when she delivered a special statement on behalf of the Liberian Government at theoccasion marking the 92^ndbirth anniversary of her Majesty QUEEN ELIZABETH, II, held at a local Hotel in Monrovia.

”Liberia acknowledges with gratitude the very supportive role the United Kingdom continues to play, throughits Department for International Development (DFID), in fostering Liberia’s developmental agenda, especially in priority sectors of Health, Security, Good Governance, Reconstruction, Capacity Building, Water and Sanitation, and the Rule of Law,”Vice President

Howard-Taylor emphasized.

Vice President Howard-Taylor noted that Liberia’s relations with England has, from the onset, always stood on the firmest of foundations, beginning with Britain taking the lead by being the first to recognize Liberia’sIndependence as a Sovereign Nation in 1848.

She said such recognition came barely a year following this country’s Declaration of Independence in 1847. She recalled that Britain even went further by helping Liberia to defend of our infant nation by donating to us an armed vessel and some guns to help secure our borders and trade.  

Expanding further on Liberia’s relations with Britain, VP Howard-Taylor recalled that,“Liberia and Great Britain went on to later collaborate in the effort to end slavery, that epitomized one of mankind’s inhumanity to man.We have no shred of doubt that indeed in the United Kingdom, Liberia has a reliable life-time partner. The people of the UK have stood with us through thick and thin in virtually all of our challenges under the gracious guidance of Her Majesty, the Queen. For this we will remain eternally grateful.”

“It is difficult for our Government and people to find any gesture abundant enough to fully convey our Nation’s appreciation of the friendship and partnership with your nation. Yet, as a symbolic token of the mutual bond between both peoples on this auspicious occasion, I am pleased to emulate the heartwarming example of the historic figure, Martha Ann Erskine Ricks, a former slave who got her lifetime wish to meet with Her Majesty Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in July of 1892,”Vice President Howard-Taylor further stated.

Dr. Howard-Taylor explained that Mrs. Ricks had sailed her way from Monrovia to England where she was facilitated by the then Liberian Ambassador to Britain,Edward Wilmot Blyden, to meet the British Monarch.

She told British Ambassador David Belgrovethat it washer humbling duty, after 126 years, and in similar spirit of gratitude and appreciation, on behalf of the President, the Government, and people of Liberia, to present a similar gift of a quilt to the Ambassador for onward presentation to the World’s beloved QUEEN, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

The Liberian Vice President concluded that this presentation was made with the prayerful hope that Her Majesty will see in this modest gift the warm smiles, radiant faces, and beaming hearts of his the Liberian people toward her and the great people of the United Kingdom.”