Royalty in the News

Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja arrived in Pretoria, South Africa on Tuesday to begin a two day state visit to the country. With them are over 100 Norwegian business leaders, looking for opportunity investments.

REUTERS/Ziphozonke Lushaba

Harald and Sonja were welcomed by President Jacob Zuma and his wife at the Union Buildings. They eventually went to the University of Pretoria, where King Harald opened a seminar on foreign policy.

Afterward, the King and Queen visited Freedom Park. This evening, they will attend a state dinner hosted by President Zuma.

Already a lot has been accomplished at this state visit. Co-operation agreements on partnerships, in higher education and research, plus mutual trade and investments have been signed. Also, efforts to tackle climate change have been agreed upon.

However, one thing would be noticably absent from this royal visit. King Harald and Queen Sonja will not be meeting with South African hero Nelson Mandela. He has chosen not meet the royal couple since he has resigned from public life and is struggling with fragile health.

Tags: Queen Sonja, South Africa, state visit

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Norway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.