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German Ambassador Miguel Berger presents his Letters of Credence to HM Queen Elizabeth II
Ambassador Miguel Berger presents his Letters of Credence to Her Majesty The Queen on 7 July 2022, © Aaron Chown/PA Wire/dpa
On 7 July 2022, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Kingdom, Miguel Berger, presented his Letters of Credence to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at a virtual audience: Her Majesty was at Windsor Castle and Ambassador Berger at Buckingham Palace.
Ambassador Berger has been in office since May 2022. Today, 7 July, he formally presented his Letters of Credence to HM The Queen. At exactly 11.46 am, a State Landau drew up in front of the Ambassador’s Residence in London. Ambassador Berger travelled in the ceremonial horse-drawn carriage to the diplomatic audience with HM Queen Elizabeth II, escorted by Her Majesty’s Vice Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, Victoria Busby.
The Ambassador was received in the Eighteenth Century Room of the Palace by HM The Queen via video link from Windsor Castle, in the presence of Sir Philip Barton, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. The Ambassador then had a private conversation with the monarch, who recently celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.
After the audience, Ambassador Berger was driven back to his Belgravia Residence in the State landau, escorted by Alistair Harrison, Her Majesty’s Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps. Upon arrival, Ambassador Berger rewarded the horses with carrots in keeping with tradition.
A celebratory reception then took place at the Ambassador’s Residence to mark the presentation of the Letters of Credence.
Following his audience with HM The Queen, Ambassador Berger said:
On behalf of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, I thanked Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for promoting friendship and reconciliation between the United Kingdom and Germany, including through her many state visits.
That HM The Queen has extended the hand of friendship to us Germans in this way is something for which I am immensely grateful. The people of Germany are impressed by Her Majesty’s unwavering sense of duty over the last 70 years.
I was also very moved to be able to take part in HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations immediately upon my arrival as Ambassador in the United Kingdom, and to have been granted the honour of an audience today.
The close, collaborative and multifaceted relationship between the United Kingdom and Germany should not be taken for granted. It has to be constantly nurtured, both on a political and a civil society level. As the German Ambassador in London I will do everything in my power to make sure this happens.
Miguel Berger, born 1961, has been the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Kingdom since May 2022. Prior to that he was a State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office.