Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife joined by King Charles and Queen Camilla on carriage ride through Windsor at start of three-day visit
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier was welcomed with military pomp, a 41-gun royal salute and a celebratory oversized Royal Standard flag flown above Windsor Castle on the first state visit by a German leader to the UK in 27 years.
King Charles and Queen Camilla accompanied the president and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, on a carriage ride through Windsor’s streets at the start of the three-day visit, which will also see the German leader pay a poignant visit to the ruins of Coventry cathedral, bombed during the second world war.
The visit comes at a difficult time for Europe in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, and will aim to underscore the Kensington treaty, signed in July as the first formal pact between the UK and Germany since the second world war, and which sets out plans for closer cooperation on migration, defence, trade and education.
At 10 Downing Street, before holding private talks with prime minister Keir Starmer, Steinmeier said the UK-German relationship was in “far better shape” than in the “difficult” post-Brexit period, and relations had improved with the Kensington treaty.
