Dutch State Visits to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania: June 11-15, 2018


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iceflower

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King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima will pay state visits to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
between June 11 and 15, 2018.

** press release ** translation **

At the invitation of President Raimonds Vejonis they will make a state visit to the Republic of Latvia on Monday 11 and Tuesday morning 12 June. The state visit to the Republic of Estonia will then take place on Tuesday afternoon 12 June and Wednesday 13 June at the invitation of President Kersti Kaljulaid. On Wednesday evening 13 June [until] Friday 15 June they will then make a state visit to the Republic of Lithuania at the invitation of President Dalia Grybauskaitė

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A state visit to three separate countries in five days ? That sounds a little bit unusual.
 
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It is unusual indeed. It seems a bit rushed. I suspect we will see more of this in the future.

The destination is not surprising and an obvious priority for the Foreign Office. All four are countries of the new 'bad weather' coalition in the EU that was forced on by the Brexit. With their natural leader -Britain- out, these eight small Northern European countries need to (re-)align to make sure that their voices will be heard & that they will not be trampled by the larger countries. Coinsidently this week's The Economist dedicated the Charlemagne-page to it.

I am looking forward to seeing Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president of Lithuania and one of the longest sitting political leaders of the EU. Queen Beatrix wore a tiara for each state visit to the Baltic states, so it is likely we can look forward to three tiara appearances in a few days.
 
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I find this a bit disrespectful. It is like a State Visit to the four Scandinavian countries, or the Benelux countries, in one go. Yesterday Oslo, today Copenhagen, tomorrow Stockholm etc. No I don't like it.
 
Quite unusual, I would expect two days in each country would make more sense and it would only add a day to the trip.
 
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Perhaps the state visits are meant to display the European solidarity/support Pribaltika, backward fringes of the EU empire, craves so much.
 
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Whatever the opnions on these visits,they were authorized by the respective governments,so,no disrespect there.Btw,the State Visit to Lithuania will be interrupted as on June 14th is the Remembrance of the mass deportations to Siberia by the Russians in 1941 of civilians of these three countries but the State Visit will be concluded the next day,june 15th.
 


It is confirmed then: three state banquets, which will give Máxima the opportunity of wearing 3 different tiaras (assuming all three events will be tiara events of course).


Not that many European queens could pull that off !
 
I recall then Queen Beatrixi visiting all three in a few days as well,
and,all three were tiara events.
 
Maxima will most likely bring three different tiaras, I can't imagine her passing on the chance to showcase the Dutch jewellery vault
 
Maxima will most likely bring three different tiaras, I can't imagine her passing on the chance to showcase the Dutch jewellery vault

HM Queen Máxima will not be in attendance since the passing of her sister Inés.
The Royal family is in Argentina now and HM The King will return after the funeral and will back in time to start the State Visit alone.
 
HM the King arrived in Riga last night.

Wishing Him strenght the coming week!!
 
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Underwhelming and sad. Poor Willem, I think he is thinking of his wife and family. This should have been postponed.
 
Yes, he most surely looks very sad and seems to be there but far away in the heart and mind......
 
Interesting: the president's husband got the Crown Order and not the Order of Orange-Nassau; is that what happened with previous state visits as well that the spouse of the head of state received the crown order?

There we no orders to be seen yesterday; so not sure why this was a white tie event and yesterday a black tie - probably they didn't exchange orders yesterday and thought it would be less obvious?

Edit: Checked previous state visits to republics (nice overview of outgoing state visits at koninklijkhuis):
Portugal: no spouse
Italy: black tie/no orders
France: business/no orders
China: business/no orders
Korea: business/no orders
Poland: black tie/no orders

Commonwealth countries (other than UK): no orders (either black tie or 'lunch')


Finally, the incoming state visit by Argentina was also a white tie event and the president's wife indeed got the Crown Order while the president received the Order of Orange-Nassau.
China's incoming state visit was white tie but no orders were exchanged (so the Dutch king and queen just wore their own orders - while princess Beatrix didn't wear an order).
 
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That state banquet was either a very small affair or they don't want us to know that more people attended.
 
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