King Charles travels to Germany on first trip as Monarch
King Charles III of Britain will travel to Germany on Wednesday for his first state visit abroad as monarch.
During his three-day visit to Germany’s capital Berlin, the eastern state of Brandenburg and the northern port city of Hamburg, Charles will address issues facing both countries such as sustainability and the Ukraine crisis, as well as commemorate the past, according to Buckingham Palace.
On Wednesday morning, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will 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 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 will then be guests of honor at a state banquet at the presidential palace, Schloss Bellevue.
On Thursday in Berlin, Charles will 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 will meet representatives from a joint German-British military unit for a demonstration of their bridge-building amphibious vehicles in Brandenburg.
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On Friday, he will visit a church in Hamburg that was destroyed by allied bombing in World War Two, 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 last September.
The British government, however, makes the ultimate decisions on such state visits, which form part of its use of the monarchy’s soft power.
As such, the trip is 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.
Charles, who succeeded his mother Queen Elizabeth as the British monarch in September, had been due to travel first to France, but cancelled that part of the tour due to violent social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law.
Zainab Sa’id
