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The Foreign Secretary announced that an area in the British Antarctic Territory has been named Queen Elizabeth Land.

He said:

鈥淵our Majesty, we are all delighted to welcome you to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the final event of your Diamond Jubilee.

鈥淚n a year in which millions of British people have been able to see you and cheer you, we are truly honoured here in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to have you here with us and to take our part in closing this magnificent period of celebration.

鈥淚t is an opportunity for everyone here to show how proud they are to serve in your Majesty鈥檚 Diplomatic Service and in the Home Civil Service.

鈥淎nd there are over 10,000 British and locally-engaged staff in our Embassies and High Commissions abroad who will be equally inspired by your visit.

鈥淵ou embody a life of service to our country, and a lifetime of diplomacy.

鈥淵ou have made over 260 official visits to 116 different countries:

鈥淧romoting reconciliation, as you did on your visit to West Germany in 1965, and to Japan in 1975;

鈥淕iving encouragement to nations after profound change, such as your visit to Russia in 1994 and to South Africa in 1995;

鈥淗elping to heal the wounds of history and to make peace irreversible, as I saw myself during your truly historic State Visit to Ireland last year; And all the time steadfastly uniting the Commonwealth.

鈥淵ou have advanced ideals of peace, friendship, freedom and tolerance, and given on each occasion an immeasurable boost to our country鈥檚 reputation overseas.

鈥淲e are deeply grateful to you, and to the 11 members of the Royal Family who have travelled to 29 countries and territories for your Diamond Jubilee.

鈥淵our Majesty, I am conscious that I am your twenty-second Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

鈥淵our wisdom and experience are an inspiration to all of us.

鈥淲e are striving for excellence in all that we do in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

鈥淥ur goal is to be the best Diplomatic Service in the world: helping British people overseas, supporting our economy, keeping our country secure, and upholding freedom and human rights at all times. We do this with your example always before us.

鈥淭oday we are renaming in your honour the newly-restored old Home Office Library, which now houses our historians and the Knowledge and Information Management team, which will be called the Diamond Jubilee Library.

鈥淎nd I am delighted to announce that as a mark of our country鈥檚 gratitude to you, an area of the Antarctic 437,000 square kilometres in size, nearly twice the size of the United Kingdom and more than a third of the whole land mass of the British Antarctic Territory, will be given a name for the very first time. From today, in your honour, it will be forever known as Queen Elizabeth Land.

鈥淵our Majesty, we are proud to serve a Queen who has achieved so much for our nation and who embodies the ideals of public service that we cherish.

鈥淪o we thank you for your visit; for this proud and happy occasion that we will all remember for the rest of our lives, and which will be recorded for our successors in the plaque you are unveiling today.

鈥淚 thank everyone here and all the staff of Foreign and Commonwealth Office, all over the world for all their hard work on behalf of our country.

鈥淎nd now your Majesty to commemorate your visit today I invite you to unveil the plaque marking your Diamond Jubilee Year.鈥�

Further Information

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