The King and Queen put the icing on the cake of an intense year in the relationship between Spain and Germany with their State visit

The King will inaugurate the Spanish-German Forum in Berlin and together with the Queen they will do the same at the Frankfurt Book Fair

MADRID, 15 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Kings Felipe VI and Letizia begin a state visit to Germany this Sunday that will be the icing on the cake in a particularly prolific year in bilateral relations between the two countries and which has included the recent celebration of the Spanish-German summit in La Coruña between the two governments.

Although it will be the first state visit to Germany since the one made by Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía in 1986, visits and other types of meetings have not stopped in recent years. In fact, since Felipe VI came to the throne in 2014 he has made, both alone and in the company of Doña Letizia, seven trips to the German country, including the presentation visit that both made after the coronation.

On the German side, according to diplomatic sources, the last state visit was made in 2002 by the then president, Johannes Rau, although the current German head of state, Frank Walter Steinmeier, made an official trip in 2018 on the occasion of the celebration of the last Spanish-German Forum.

Precisely, the inauguration of the X Hispano-German Forum will be one of the key points on Don Felipe's agenda in Berlin, where he will arrive on Sunday, while the other highlight will be the inauguration of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the most important at an international level and in which Spain is the guest country on this occasion.

The visit, in which the King and Queen will be accompanied by the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, will start on Sunday afternoon, with the traditional reception for the Spanish community in Germany at the Embassy in Berlin - around 187,000 people reside in this country Spaniards, while in Spain there are already some 111,000 Germans--, but the official agenda will begin on Monday.

The King and Queen will be welcomed to Bellevue Palace with all the honors by the German president and his wife, Elke Buedenbender. After signing in the book of honor, a meeting of four is planned and then separate meetings of Don Felipe and Steinmeier and the Queen and Buedenbender. At the end of all this, both heads of state will offer an institutional declaration.

After that, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will make a floral offering at the Monument to the Victims of War and Tyranny, which will be followed by the visit that the King will make to the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, in which several Spanish scientists in projects related to green hydrogen, among others.

Continuing with the political agenda of the visit, Felipe VI will meet with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at the Foreign Ministry, while the day will culminate with the state dinner that Steinmeier will give to the King and Queen.

Tuesday will kick off with the Spanish-German Forum, where the King will be accompanied by the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, and this edition will focus on the digital transition and the ecological. The presidents of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, and of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, will be present at the event, among others.

Next, Don Felipe is scheduled to meet at the Bundestag headquarters with the President of the German Parliament, Baerbel Bas, while the Queen will simultaneously visit an exhibition of the Helga de Alvear Museum Collection at the Palais Populaire in Berlin under which, the title 'Write all their names', brings together works by Spanish artists from 1960 to the present.

Before heading to Frankfurt, the second stage of the state visit, the King and Queen will visit the Berlin City Hall and the Brandenburg Gate together with the mayor of the German capital, Franziska Giffey.

The King and Queen will be in charge of opening the Book Fair in the early hours of Tuesday afternoon, together with the German president and his wife. This is the second time that Spain is the guest country, after 1991, although in 2007 the guest was Catalan culture.

The motto chosen for this occasion is 'Overflowing creativity' and Spain will have a pavilion of about 2,000 square meters. The King and Queen will be accompanied both at the inauguration and at the subsequent visit to the Spanish stand, as well as during the tour they will take the Spanish exhibitors the following day by the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta.

In Frankfurt, the King also plans to visit the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) accompanied in this case by the first vice president, Nadia Calviño. Here, he will have the opportunity to speak with Spanish officials, including his vice president, Luis de Guindos, and will also see his president, Christine Lagarde.

Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will complete their stay in Germany with a visit to the Cervantes Institute in Frankfurt, where they will hold a meeting with a group of German Hispanists.

Relations between Spain and Germany are going through an excellent moment, as was shown by the bilateral summit on October 5 between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Chancellor Scholz, accompanied by several of his ministers, and which will once again be in evidence with the visit of the Kings, diplomatic sources affect.

The current harmony between the two governments, especially on energy issues and in relation to interconnections, also has its translation on other European and foreign policy issues. Germany increasingly has its sights set on the southern neighbourhood, a priority for Spain, and also on Latin America, where our country is an essential actor, the sources add.

In addition to meeting at EU summits and other international meetings, Scholz traveled to Madrid to meet with Sánchez last January, a few weeks after taking office, and the Prime Minister was invited in August to attend a meeting of the German council of ministers in Meserberg, in a rare gesture.

The two heads of government met again this Friday in Berlin, in a three-way meeting with the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, before participating on Saturday in the congress of the European Socialist Party (PES), of which the three are part.