By Thanasis Gavou

Charles III is making his first official trip abroad as king today, visiting Germany.

Germany was due to be the second stop on that trip, but the three-day visit to France was postponed due to episodic protests against President Macron’s pension changes.

Upon their arrival in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon, King Charles and royal wife Camilla will be greeted with 21 cannon shots and a fighter jet flyover.

They will then proceed to a reception with full honors at the Brandenburg Gate. It will be the first time that Germany welcomes a foreign head of state at this point and not at the official residence of the German president.

At the residence, however, they will then proceed to meet with President Steinmeier and his wife. It will be followed by a reception on sustainability and tackling climate change, with the participation of German ministers, businessmen, experts, academics and representatives of civil society.

In the evening the royal couple will sit down to an official dinner in his honor at the German presidential palace.

As part of the visit, which ends on Friday, King Charles will become the first British monarch to address the federal Bundestag. He will also visit World War II memorials in Hamburg.

It is Charles’ 29th official visit to Germany, with the last, as Crown Prince of Wales, taking place in 2020.

The purpose of the visit is to confirm the UK’s close relationship with Germany and to highlight bilateral cooperation in a range of areas including climate change, the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, trade and investment, arts and culture .