The Diplomat
King Philip VI and Queen Letizia will travel tomorrow to Sweden for their second state visit since the beginning of the pandemic and the first one by the King and Queen of Spain to the Nordic country in 42 years.
According to diplomatic sources, the purpose of this State trip is to strengthen and consolidate relations between the two countries and to stimulate bilateral collaboration to achieve a sustainable and innovative recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Directorate General of Communication, Public Diplomacy and Networks, the State trip responds to an invitation from the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf. The King and Queen will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, given the obvious scientific and technological nature of this visit.
This is the second state trip made by the King and Queen of Spain since the outbreak of the pandemic, after the one they made on March 25 and 26 to Andorra in preparation for the Ibero-American Summit, held a month later. Besides, it is also the first state trip to Sweden since 1979, when King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia visited this country also at the invitation of King Carl XVI Gustaf, who returned to Spain in 1983. Apart from that, it is the eleventh state trip of the King and Queen since the proclamation of Philip VI in June 2014, after those made to Mexico and Portugal (2015), Japan and the United Kingdom (2017), Peru (2018), Morocco, Argentina, South Korea and Cuba (2019) and Andorra (2021).
The trip also comes a week after King Philip VI awarded Queen Silvia the Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Carlos III, the most distinguished civilian decoration awarded in Spain and which King Carl XVI Gustaf already received in 1979, during his previous state visit. In addition, Crown Princess Victoria has been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, while Prince Daniel, Prince Charles Philip and his wife, Princess Sofia, have been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit. The state visit also coincides with a moment of intensified contacts between Sweden and Spain, the two countries that will hold the rotating presidency of the EU throughout 2023, the Nordic country in the first half of the year and our country in the second.
According to the aforementioned sources, the agenda of the trip, which will take place on November 24 and 25, includes meetings with the acting Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven; and the President of the Swedish Parliament, Andreas Norlén, as well as visits to the Karolinska Institute, the KTH Institute of Technology, the Bernadotte Library at the Royal Palace, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Nobel Museum -which houses a temporary exhibition on Santiago Ramón y Cajal, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906-, in addition to a gala dinner at the Royal Palace and a lunch offered by the Stockholm City Council.
The visit will also have a strong business component, especially in the field of infrastructure, renewable energies and telecommunications. On Thursday, the King and Carl XVI Gustaf will chair a Sweden-Spain business seminar at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, which will be attended by representatives of five companies from each country. Afterwards, the two King and Queen will travel to the Technical College to participate in a meeting on transport, digitalization and sustainable recovery.
On Thursday, the two Queens will attend a seminar on language and literature at the Bernadotte Library, organized by the Swedish Institute and the Cervantes Institute (Spanish is the third most studied foreign language in Sweden). After a reception at the Spanish Embassy, the King and Queen will attend the official farewell ceremony at Arlanda airport, from where they will return to Spain.
