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British royals meet Spanish royal family: first visit in 31 years

British royals meet Spanish royal family: first visit in 31 years

British royals greeted King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, for the first time in 31 years, these two families meet each other. 

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Camilla, the spouse of Prince Charles, all greet the royal couple from the Kingdom of Spain. On Wednesday, London became the point of meeting between these two royal European families. King Felipe and his wife Queen Letizia, arrived in London this morning to begin their State Visit.

In fact, the state visit of Spanish royals is the first one in 31 years, the issue of Gibraltar made the relations between two states rather strained.

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England and Spain as two powerful states of Europe

In 1986, King Juan Carlos of Spain paid an official visit to the UK, since that time the Spanish royals didn’t come to the island. King Felipe, the 49-year-old Spanish monarch, is expected to raise the tricky issue of Gibraltar during his stay in London this week.

The royal visit has been postponed twice because of the internal political complications in Spain in March 2016. Last June also wasn’t the perfect date for the visit, the UK’s snap general election was a rather busy time.

Prince Charles and Camilla greet King Felipe and Queen Letizia

During the visit the King and Queen enjoy a lunch at Buckingham Palace, afternoon tea at Clarence House and a State Banquet at the Palace with senior members of the Royal family.

The King Felipe VI will also attend a UK-Spain Business Forum at Mansion House with the Duke of York. Later, he and his wife Letizia will visit Westminster Abbey together with the grandson of Queen Elizabeth, Harry. The Spanish monarch is going as well to meet PM Theresa May at No. 10 Downing Street.