King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians have embarked on an official visit to the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates that will last until Saturday.
The state plane carrying the royal couple, who are travelling accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès, the Minister of Economy and Employment Pierre-Yves Dermagne and the Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten, touched down in Oman’s Muscat International Airport in mid morning.
The focus of the first day of travel, which also included a stop in Duqm, was the strengthening of Belgian-Omani relationships through the production of energy and the development of cooperative efforts towards transitioning to green energy.
The first day activities, in fact, included several stops in Duqm related to this topic: first the official inauguration of the city’s new port, built to accomodate growing imports and exports from Oman to an ever growing market.
And second, a visit to Hyport, a newly built plant capable of producing hydrogen, considered a valid and sustainable alternative to traditional energy sources.
Both these projects stem from the cooperation between Belgium and Oman, and King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, together with Belgian and Omani political authorities, have taken particular care to include these stops in their trip.
The rest of the trip will be more in line with tradition: Their Majesties have already received their official welcome to the Sultanate of Oman at Al Alam Palace from Sultan Oman Haitham bin Tarik, and will continue their agenda there until Friday, when they will travel to the United Arab Emirates, where one of their stops will be the visit of the Belgian pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Official visits are a step down from state visits and can serve the purpose of focussing more on bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries rather than form. They are also a lot less expensive to organise, which is why they are becoming more and more prominent even for visits between two heads of state.
