Photo: The Spanish Royal House
The Spanish royal couple on a state visit to Finland
King Felipe and Queen Letizia were welcomed with a ceremony outside the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on Tuesday morning. It is the first Spanish state visit to Finland in 37 years.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia are on a state visit to Finland. President Alexander Stubb and his wife Suzanne Innes-Stubb received the royal couple at an official welcome ceremony outside the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on Tuesday morning, where members of the public could watch from Market Square.
This is the first state visit to Finland by King Felipe and Queen Letizia, and the first Spanish state visit to the country in 37 years. The last one was in 1989, when King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía came to Helsinki.
Programme in Helsinki
After the ceremony, official talks between the two delegations are on the programme, with Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares taking part. Albares is accompanying the royal couple throughout the trip.
Later on Tuesday, the Mayor of Helsinki, Daniel Sazonov, is to host a luncheon at the City Hall. King Felipe is to meet the Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, and later attend a business event at Finlandia Hall with Finnish and Spanish companies working on artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum technology. Queen Letizia, together with Suzanne Innes-Stubb, is to visit a basic school in the Käpylä district. The day ends with a gala dinner at the Presidential Palace.
On to Lapland
On Wednesday the royal couple will lay wreaths at the Heroes' Cross and at Marshal Mannerheim's grave at Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. They then go on to Finlandia Hall to see the exhibition on Alvar Aalto and to open an exhibition on contemporary Spanish architecture.
The final part of the visit takes place in Rovaniemi in Lapland. There King Felipe is to visit the Lapland Air Wing and the Jaeger Brigade and meet conscripts doing their military service. The royal couple will also go to the Arktikum science centre and museum, where they meet representatives of the city of Rovaniemi, the province of Lapland and the Sámi people. The visit concludes at the University of Lapland, where both President Stubb and King Felipe are to give speeches on European security and international cooperation, and meet students.
Meeting Spaniards in Finland
The royal couple arrived in Helsinki on Monday. The first item on the programme was a reception for Spaniards living in Finland at the NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa hotel. There the King said that "those who leave their homeland end up becoming its best representatives".
Spain and Finland are members of both the EU and NATO, and European security and the Arctic are among the main themes of the visit.