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German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier was welcomed with military pomp, a 41-gun royal salute and a celebratory oversized Royal Standard flag flown above Windsor Castle on the first state visit by a German leader to the UK in 27 years.
King Charles and Queen Camilla accompanied the president and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, on a carriage ride through Windsor’s streets at the start of the three-day visit, which will also see the German leader pay a poignant visit to the ruins of Coventry cathedral, bombed during the second world war.
The visit comes at a difficult time for Europe in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, and will aim to underscore the Kensington treaty, signed in July as the first formal pact between the UK and Germany since the second world war, and which sets out plans for closer cooperation on migration, defence, trade and education.
At 10 Downing Street, before holding private talks with prime minister Keir Starmer, Steinmeier said the UK-German relationship was in “far better shape” than in the “difficult” post-Brexit period, and relations had improved with the Kensington treaty.
“We have a new security situation in Europe, if not in the whole world. So therefore there is a need of closer cooperation,” he said.
“But we were talking also about economic and closer ties between our companies, about the exchange of people.
“So therefore, after some years with growing difficulties after 2016 I think we are in a far better shape and we have to engage in improving the situation and coming closer in this changing world with new threats to all of us.”
Starmer said the two counties had “worked very, very closely on hugely important issues like Ukraine, where our two countries think alike and act alike, on issues of migration and on economic growth and trade, where we go from strength to strength”.
Steinmeier, 69, will also address parliamentarians during his stay.
A Downing Street spokesperson said of the meeting between Steinmeier and Starmer that they “agreed on the importance of continuing to work together to deliver a just and lasting peace for Ukraine”.
The spokesperson added: “They discussed the urgent need to tackle irregular migration, and the progress of new legislation to make facilitating illegal migration from Germany to the UK a crime.
“The prime minister outlined how, once approved by Germany’s parliament, this will bolster efforts to prosecute those involved in smuggling and support the dismantling of the criminal networks driving unacceptable and unlawful journeys through Europe.”
The visiting couple were attending a lavish state banquet on Wednesday evening in Windsor Castle’s St George’s Hall, with the room decorated with a six-metre Christmas tree featuring 3,000 lights and echoing the German Christmas tradition popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
In the traditional exchange of gifts, Charles presented the president with a handmade walking stick from the Isle of Mull and a decorative slipware plate, and in return received an umbrella and a specially made cheese.
For the first time in modern history there was a Christmassy feel to the state banquet, with the table decorated in festive deep red poinsettias, bright red berries and mini fir trees.
German model Claudia Schiffer was seated next to Starmer. Her film-maker husband Sir Matthew Vaughn, movie-score composer Hans Zimmer, Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse, and The Gruffalo children’s book illustrator Axel Scheffler, were on the 152-strong guest list.
German former football player Thomas Hitzlsperger, who played for Aston Villa, and England Lioness Georgia Stanway were also invited.
A black forest gateau cocktail was created especially. The menu consisted of tartlet of hot smoked trout with langoustines, quail eggs and shellfish sauce; Windsor partridge supreme wrapped in puff pastry with confit cabbage and port sauce. Dessert was baked alaska with ice-cream. The wine list diplomatically included a German white wine – Joh. Jos. Prüm, Graacher Himmelreich, Spätlese, 2010.
Anti-monarchists protested over the controversy regarding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein earlier in Windsor.
Campaign group Republic accused Thames Valley police of an attack on free speech, claiming protesters were threatened with arrest if they displayed a banner saying “Charles, what are you hiding?” as the state visit procession passed through.
Thames Valley police said they had “facilitated a peaceful protest” and officers had stopped the protesters using a loudhailer when horses were nearby and “asked them to step back to our designated protest area”.
