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After 23 years, a French leader is paying another official state visit to the Netherlands today. President Macron and his wife Brigitte are in Amsterdam and The Hague for two days. Reason enough to celebrate the friendly bond between the two countries, including four minutes of gun salutes and an official reception at the Palace on Dam Square.
Macron comes at the invitation of King Willem-Alexander. The King and Queen Máxima welcomed the French president and his wife to Dam Square this morning. In the afternoon there is a private lunch with the royal couple.
No pain points
There are hardly any hot issues between the two countries; it is generally accepted that the relationship between France and the Netherlands is currently very good. The state visit therefore reconfirms the “excellent relations between France and the Netherlands”, writes the Government Information Service.
The agenda of the state visit includes discussions on sustainability and an independent Europe.
On Dam Square in Amsterdam, the Marinierskapel will play the national anthems this morning, the guard of honor will be inspected and a wreath will be laid. Macron then travels to The Hague, where he meets the presidents of the Senate and House of Representatives, Jan Anthonie Bruijn and Vera Bergkamp. In the evening there will be a state banquet in the Palace on Dam Square, at which Macron and Willem-Alexander will give speeches.
Tomorrow Macron and his wife will visit the Johannes Vermeer exhibition in the Rijksmuseum together with Prime Minister Rutte. They will also visit the University of Amsterdam and there will be talks between the Dutch and French cabinets.
As part of the welcome ceremony on the Amsterdam IJ, a French warship fires 42 shots there. The first 21 sailing, then another 21 from the Marineterrein. “It is very unique that a visiting head of state brings his own warship, which salutes the Netherlands on behalf of that head of state,” the municipality writes.
The municipality warns that the shots will be heard in a large part of the city; it is expected that many people will report this to the police. “Especially now that many people are concerned about the war in Ukraine, or have experienced a war situation themselves. Several refugees from war zones live near the IJ and Marineterrein, at the head of Java Island. The district, the municipal shelter for refugees and COA will try to inform them in advance.”
The last time a French president paid a state visit to the Netherlands was in 2000, when Jacques Chirac and his wife Bernadette made the trip to Amsterdam and The Hague. In 2016, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima paid a state visit to France. The royal couple visited then-president Hollande at the Élysée Palace.
Jacques Chirac paid an official visit to the Netherlands in 2000:
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AFP
Then French President Chirac, his wife Bernadette and Queen Beatrix -
AFP
President Chirac also laid a wreath on Dam Square in 2000 -
ANP
Chirac visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague with then Prime Minister Kok
Macron was still in the Netherlands in January, but that was not a state visit. Prime Minister Rutte and the president then spoke in the Trêveszaal at the Binnenhof, and afterwards they emphasized the good relationship between the two countries. “That bond is extra important, I may say indispensable, because of the war in Ukraine,” said Rutte. They then ate a rice table in the Indonesian restaurant Poentjak, near the Binnenhof.
