The king and queen are coming to Mexico.
Not Charles III and Camilla of the United Kingdom or Felipe VI and Letizia of Spain, but King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden.
The Swedish Embassy in Mexico announced Thursday that the monarch and his wife would travel to Mexico for a state visit between March 12 and 14.
Carl XVI Gustaf — the longest reigning monarch in Swedish history — and Queen Silvia were invited to Mexico by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the embassy said in a statement.
“The objective of the state visit is to consolidate the good relations between Sweden and Mexico and strengthen economic and political ties, focusing on innovation, cooperation, trade and investment,” it said.
The embassy said that Johan Forssell, minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, will represent the Swedish government during the visit, and that a business delegation made up of representatives from more than 25 Swedish companies will also come to Mexico.
“A lot of Swedish companies have been operating in Mexico for decades and, with Mexico’s young population and dynamic economy, there are good opportunities to deepen and broaden trade,” the embassy said.
Carl and Silvia’s state visit will commence in Mexico City, where López Obrador and his wife Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller will host an official welcoming ceremony. It will conclude in Yucatán, where the king and queen will travel from Mérida to the archaeological site of Uxmal on the Maya Train, according to the embassy’s statement.
On their first day in the capital, the king and queen will also attend a meeting with López Obrador and Gutiérrez and visit the federal Senate.
On their second day in Mexico City, the king “will formally open the Mexico-Sweden Business Forum, at which issues such as sustainable transport solutions, sustainable mining, the telecommunications industry and health will be discussed,” the statement said.
The king and queen will later visit SOS Children’s Villages and the National Autonomous University of Mexico before attending a lunch with business sector representatives.
There’ll be no time for an after-lunch siesta as the 77-year-old monarch is scheduled to inaugurate the new Mexico City offices of telecommunications company Ericsson.
Carl and Silvia will later meet with members of the Swedish community in Mexico before attending a folkloric ballet performance at the Palace of Fine Arts in the historic center of the capital.
On the third day of their state visit, the king and queen will meet with representatives of the Maya and Yaqui indigenous peoples at Uxmal, according to the embassy. Later in the day, Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila will have an audience with the royal couple.
On March 15, Carl and Silvia — an 80-year old German native born to a German father and a Brazilian mother — will return to Sweden.
Mexico and Sweden formalized diplomatic relations in 1885, while two-way trade between the countries exceeded US $1.3 billion in 2022.
The king and queen of Sweden previously visited Mexico in 1982 and 2002, while three Mexican presidents including Vicente Fox (2000-06) made state visits to Sweden.
Mexico News Daily
