King Charles III was to travel to Germany yesterday in his first state visit abroad since becoming British monarch, as part of efforts to turn the page on years of rocky relations between Britain and the EU after its exit from the bloc.
Charles, who succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as the British monarch in September last year, had been due to travel first to France, but canceled that part of the tour due to violent social unrest over French President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law.
During his three-day visit to Germany’s capital, Berlin, the eastern state of Brandenburg and the northern port city of Hamburg, Charles is to address issues facing both countries, such as sustainability and the Ukraine war, as well as commemorate the past, Buckingham Palace said.
Photo: AFP
Yesterday morning, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to greet Charles and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, with military honors at Berlin’s most famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of the country’s division during the Cold War and subsequent reunification.
Steinmeier said that it was an important “European gesture” that Charles had chosen France and Germany for his first state visit, even before his coronation in May.
“To him and obviously all Britons, I want to say that we in Germany, in Europe, wish for close and friendly relations with the United Kingdom even after Brexit,” he said in a video message ahead of the trip.
The royal couple would then be guests of honor at a state banquet at the presidential palace, Schloss Bellevue.
Today in Berlin, Charles is to address the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag — which he last addressed in 2020 as Prince of Wales — and meet some of the 1 million Ukrainians that have taken refuge from war in Germany.
Later in the day, he is to meet representatives from a joint German-British military unit for a demonstration of their bridge-building amphibious vehicles in Brandenburg.
Tomorrow, he is to visit a church in Hamburg that was destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II, and meet with representatives of firms deploying green technology in the port.
Steinmeier said he had extended an invitation to Charles, who has traveled to Germany more than 40 times, at the funeral of his mother in September last year.
However, the British government makes the ultimate decisions on such state visits, which form part of its use of the monarchy’s soft power.
As such, the trip was a clear sign of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s push to reset relations with Europe, said Anand Menon, director of academic think tank UK in a Changing Europe.
However, any warmer relations with Europe brought about by the visit could cool quickly if other post-Brexit issues flare up. These include if the effort fails to yield Britain’s readmittance to the Horizon program, the EU’s key funding program for research and innovation, with a 95.5 billion euros (US$102.8 billion) budget.
Macron has suggested Charles’ visit to France could be rescheduled for the summer.
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