King to use first state visit to France to strengthen post-brexit ties
THE King is expected to make his first state visit to France in March to build bridges post-brexit, it has emerged.
The monarch and the Queen Consort will travel to Paris before Easter at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron, Le Parisien reported.
The visit, pencilled in for the week of March 27, will include a state dinner at the Elysée Palace and a meeting between Camilla and Brigitte Macron,
France’s first lady, the newspaper said. A meeting with Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, is thought likely.
An adviser to Mr Macron told the newspaper: “It will be extremely symbolic because it will be the first official visit of Charles III. The fact that it will come before the King’s coronation shows how important France is to him.”
They added: “This will be an opportunity to demonstrate the historic links between his country and ours, beyond Brexit, and also the family continuity, because Elizabeth II was a Francophile and French-speaking.”
It was revealed in September that the King was planning to visit Paris to cement his relationship with Mr Macron, who shares his passion for the environment. The moment will mark the resumption of overseas state visits by a reigning British monarch. The late Queen made her final trip abroad in 2015, spending three days in Malta with the Duke of Edinburgh.
Mr Macron is thought to have extended an official invitation to the King when he travelled to London for the Queen’s funeral. “I think the British people and the King felt France’s deep affection for them and the emotion we shared,” he said at the time. During that visit, he reportedly gave His Majesty an album of photographs of Queen Elizabeth II’S visit to Versailles in 1957.
Mr Macron has “signalled his full willingness” to continue the work he has done with the King in recent years, “starting with the protection of the climate and the planet”. The King, who has spent decades drawing attention to environmental issues, is expected to highlight a scheme to plant millions of trees in Africa during his visit.
The Queen’s fifth and final state visit to France was in 2014, accompanied by the late Duke of Edinburgh. In a speech delivered partly in French at a state banquet, in the same ballroom at the Elysée likely to host a banquet for the King, she noted the many similarities and links between the two nations, which she said gave her “immense confidence in the future of relations between us”. She added: “I recall my own happiness, discovering this beautiful country for myself and for the first time, and developing my great affection for the French people. Wherever … our countrymen gather, there one finds the unique mixture of friendship, good-humoured rivalry and admiration that is the essence of Anglo-french relations.”
Buckingham Palace declined comment.