Spanish King and Queen welcome Jordanian monarch

KING ABDULLAH II and Queen Rania have commenced a European tour with a two day visit to Spain on November 19 and 20 before continuing to Austria and Kosovo.

They were welcomed by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and this will be the first time that the royal couple has received visitors from other royal families in Spain. The last time the two kings saw each other was in September, during a UN convention on sustainable development.

King Abdullah met with Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy in the Moncloa palace and later, on the evening of November 19, former King Juan Carlos, and Queen Sofia joined King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia as they hosted a private dinner for the visitors in the Royal Palace of El Prado.

On November 20, the two monarchs toured the Airbus Defense facilities in Getafe near Madrid whilst the programme for the queens saw them visit the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and meet with experts of the Center for Molecular Biology.

Afterwards, there was to be a business lunch at the Royal Palace and an audience with a delegation of businessmen from Morocco in the Palacio de la Zarzuela.

It was actually in Jordan, only a week after her marriage to Felipe, that Letizia made her formal debut as Princess of Asturias when they attended the wedding of Prince Hamzah, the son of King Hussein and his fourth wife, Queen Noor.