King Charles arrives in Germany on first overseas trip as monarch
King Charles arrived in Germany on Wednesday for 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 European Union after its exit from the bloc.
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.
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.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier greeted King Charles and his wife Queen Consort Camilla with military honours at Berlin's landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, on the King's first state visit abroad since becoming British monarch.
Steinmeier is scheduled to hold a state banquet on Thursday at the presidential palace Schloss Bellevue for the royal couple.
Underscoring Charles' interest in environmental causes, one of his first engagements in Berlin will be a forum on sustainability where he will meet Germany's foreign and economy ministers who are both from the Greens party, the junior partners in the country's three-way coalition.
There, he will also meet business leaders, academics and civil society representatives to discuss matters from hydrogen and renewables to industrial decarbonisation, according to Buckingham Palace.
Charles will address the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag - which he last addressed in 2020 as Prince of Wales - on Thursday in Berlin, and meet some of the one million Ukrainians who 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.
On Friday, the King will visit a church in Hamburg that was destroyed by allied bombing in World War Two, and meet representatives of firms deploying green technology in the port.
Steinmeier said he had extended an invitation to Charles, who has travelled to Germany more than 40 times, at the funeral of his mother last September.
Hundreds of people greeted King Charles III. with British and German flags at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Wednesday.
The king and German President shook hands with the crowds before continuing to Bellevue castle where Charles III. signed the Golden Book.
"Together, as friends and partners, we are now looking ahead - and that is why we are very consciously starting this state visit with the topic that is decisive for our future on this planet: the human task of sustainability, energy transition and climate protection," said Steinmeier.
Reuters
