On the occasion of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, a reception was organized by the British Embassy in Bucharest. Over 2,000 people were invited to the reception hosted by the BNR Arena as a garden party.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu, Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Transformation Sebastian Burduja, Culture Minister Lucian Romascanu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu, and British journalist Charlie Ottley were among the guests.
The Romanian and UK anthems were played by the Orchestra of the Ministry of National Defence. After a speech delivered at the beginning of the reception, British Ambassador Andrew Noble toasted to King Charles III and Queen Camilla, as well as to President Klaus Iohannis and the Romanian people.
At the same time, the ambassador mentioned the fact that he will leave Romania in the autumn, adding that his successor has already been learning the Romanian language for several months. In fact, the British diplomat delivered half of his speech in English and half in Romanian.
„I will leave Romania this autumn, almost 40 years since I first came here and over 5 since I returned, in 2018. (…) At the end of August, I will have lived in Bucharest for 8 years, twice as long as I lived in London. But I am leaving a completely different country than the one I left in 1986. In just 27 years, starting from 1996, Romania has made extraordinary progress,” said Noble.
He said he was delighted by the popularity of Charles in Romania, who owns property here and has been visiting the country since 1998.
„I could almost believe I was in a Commonwealth state,” he quipped.
Noble and Princess Sofia cut together a cake with the UK flag and the logo of the coronation of King Charles III on top.
The guests were invited to an exhibition of photos from King Charles’s visits to Romania over the years, as well as photos from the coronation that took place on May 6 at Westminster Abbey.
There was also music. The Jukebox band performed songs from the repertoire of Queen, The Beatles, Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Eurythmics, Dire Straits, Depeche Mode and Coldplay, as well as from the soloists Robbie Williams, Ed Sheeran and Eric Clapton.
For the coronation of King Charles III, the British Embassy in Bucharest and the Agerpres National News Agency paid tribute to the former Prince of Wales in the form of a small photo album published by the Monitorul Oficial Publishing House called „King Charles III and Romania/Regele Charles al III-lea si Romania.”
The album is dedicated to the relationship between the British sovereign and Romania, a country to which he felt deeply attached even before 1989 and in which he became actually involved after 1998, the year of his first visit here, in a permanent desire to preserve its cultural heritage and protect its natural beauty.
„The collection of photographs and related comments accompany the current King Charles throughout his constant travels to Romania for 25 years and capture him always affectionate with the locals, delighted by the poetry of the houses and the landscape, as an initiator of many charitable activities through Prince of Wales Foundation, supporter of local producers, ecological agriculture and biodiversity, admirer of Romanian traditions and culture. The wonderful Blue House in Viscri, transformed into a museum in 2021, and the house in the beautiful Zalanului Valley are testimonies of the longing that has made him always return to Romania as if to a second home,” reads a message posted on the social media by Monitorul Oficial.
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