King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima started their two-day state visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. On their first day the Dutch Royals had lunch with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham palace and visited the British parliament, NOS reports.
Shortly before being received at the palace, the Royal couple met with Dutch living in the UK and discussed the expats' concerns about the consequences of the Brexit - the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in March next year.
King Willem-Alexander expressed his regret and concern about the United Kingdom's imminent departure from the European Union, speaking to British journalist ahead of his state visit to the U.K. later this month. The Dutch King is particularly concerned about the consequences the Brexit will have for trade between the Netherlands and England, the Guardian and the Independent report.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will pay a state visit to the United Kingdom, at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth, in the autumn. The visit will take place on October 23rd and 24th. Minster Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs will accompany the Royal couple, government information service Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst announced.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are grateful for all the expressions of support and sympathy they received after the death of Maxima's sister Inés Zorreguieta, the Dutch King said upon arrival in Riga on Sunday evening. On Monday morning the King starts his state visits to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Telegraaf reports.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima met with Pope Franciscus while on a State Visit to Vatican City on Thursday. According to the scedule, the meeting was set to take 15 minutes, but went on for over 30, according to newspaper AD.
King Willem-Alexander is proud of the way in which the Netherlands sheltered 65 thousand asylum seekers that flooded into the country since 2015, he said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Republica. He is proud to say that not one asylum seeker had to sleep on the street, the Telegraaf reports.
The Dutch King called the Netherlands a school example of a multicultural society, and Amsterdam the capital of tolerance. He added that the Netherlands has been sheltering people from all over the world for centuries.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will be paying state visits to Australia and New Zealand later this year, the Royal House announced on Monday. "The visits are devoted to the history and broad bilateral ties the Netherlands has with Australia and New Zealand", according to the statement.
King Willem-Alexander praised and reconfirmed "our bond" with France after the "deep wounds" caused by the terrorist attacks in Paris last year during his dinner speech at the state banquet with President Francois Hollande in the Elysee on Thursday night
Queen Maxima is bouncing back from her kidney infection with a bang. In the coming week the Queen is attending a conference in Amsterdam, a forum in Turkey and paying a state visit to Bangladesh, all in her capacity as special advocate for the Secretary-General of the United Nations for inclusive financing for development, the Royal House announced.
Queen Maxima has cut her visit to China short and headed back to the Netherlands on Tuesday, the Royal House announced. The Queen was diagnosed with a kidney infection on Monday and the medication she was prescribed was not enough to alleviate her symptoms.
Queen Maxima contracted a kidney infection while on the Royal Family's state visit to China. She was diagnosed by a doctor on Monday morning. This means that the Queen will not be attending official parts of the state visit on Monday at least.
King Willem-Alexander and Minister Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs will broach the topic of the human rights situation in China during the Royal Couple's state visit to the country at the end of this month.
Yesterday King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima arrived in Tokyo and today they were officially received by Emperor Akihito and his wife Michiko at the imperial palace.
