Eduardo González
Today, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia begin a three-day state trip to Denmark in response to an invitation from Queen Margaret II.
This is the first state visit of the King and Queen to Denmark since their arrival to the Throne. However, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia already traveled to this country on April 15, 2015 to attend the gala dinner that the Danish Royal House had organized at Christiansborg Palace to celebrate the 75th birthday of Margaret II. Additionally, the Kings of Spain coincided with Margaret II in London, on September 19, 2022, on the occasion of the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, where they sat next to the King emeritus and Queen Sofia.
The King and Queen will be accompanied by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and by a business delegation that will focus its visit on areas of Danish-Spanish cooperation, such as the green transition, the pharmaceutical industry and maritime transport, among others. , as reported by the Ministry and the Danish Royal House.
The King and Queen will arrive today in Copenhagen, where they will travel to Amalienborg Palace to meet Margaret II. Subsequently, Don Felipe will hold a meeting with the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, and, in the evening, the King and Queen will attend the gala dinner offered by the Queen of Denmark at Christianborg Palace.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Don Felipe will participate in the Spain-Denmark Business Forum. According to Foreign Affairs data, the accumulated flow of Spanish investments in Denmark since 1993 and until 2022 has been 2,155 million euros. By sectors, the priority destination has been the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products, telecommunications and the manufacture of electrical materials and equipment. Denmark occupies 34th place in the ranking of countries by Spanish investment position abroad since 1993. For its part, Denmark’s investment in Spain amounted to 27 million euros in 2022, with special interest in the production of electrical energy of origin wind power and real estate development. The accumulated flow of Danish investments in Spain from 1993 to 2022 amounts to 1,303 million euros. Denmark occupies 31st place in the ranking of the largest investing countries in Spain since 1993.
After the business meeting, the King and Queen will pay tribute to the fallen soldiers in the Citadel and will visit the City Hall and the University of Copenhagen. At noon, Don Felipe will visit the Parliament of Denmark and Doña Letizia will tour the children’s module of the Rigshospitalet and visit the pilot module of the Mary Elisabeth Hospital.
In the afternoon, the King and Queen will inaugurate, together with the Queen of Denmark and princes Frederik and Mary, an exhibition about Joaquín Sorolla and other contemporary Spanish artists on the centenary of the death of the Valencian painter. The day will end with a dinner that Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will offer to the Queen of Denmark.
On Wednesday, the King and Queen will hold a farewell meeting with the Queen of Denmark at Fredensborg Palace, attend a round table at the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) and will give a reception to the Spanish community in Denmark, which will end the State trip.
In recent years there have been exchanges at the highest level between the two countries. The President of the Government (currently acting), Pedro Sánchez, received his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, in Madrid on February 21, 2022. A year later, on March 2, the prime minister herself received the head of the Executive in Copenhagen as part of one of the several tours that Sánchez made to several European countries to prepare for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. On this second occasion, both leaders signed a memorandum of understanding on the green transition and to support renewable hydrogen.
