Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On March 23, 1881, Sweden announced that King Oscar II and Queen Sofia Wilhelmina would arrive in Western Australia on March 25 to meet the Kingdom of the Netherlands after nearly a month of overseas wandering. On a state visit, he will arrive in Melbourne, the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, for talks with William IV before the end of March.

This state visit invited by King William IV of the Netherlands is the first time 10 years since the King of Sweden moved the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from Amsterdam on the European mainland to Melbourne on the Australian continent in the Far East in 1871, when the king's eldest brother Carl XV attended. Years later, the King of Sweden paid another state visit to the Dutch capital.

From the perspective of the Netherlands, this is the second state visit since the 1980s, after receiving Queen Isabella II of Spain last year, and the first state visit invitation this year.

Sweden's "Kings Evening News" reported, citing government sources, that the Netherlands and Sweden had high hopes for the meeting between the kings of the two countries, in line with the different intentions of the state guests who had "the country officially invites foreign guests." This is also an occasion to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dutch-Swedish Alliance promoted by William IV since he came to power in 1862. The Dutch-Swedish Alliance is the primary core axis of Sweden’s foreign strategy and the basis of economic growth. It is also considered the most successful in the Netherlands’ foreign policy. case.

The Prime Minister Offices of the two countries are participating in the Nordic Four Summit hosted by Spain in Madrid, the Spanish capital, and have launched bilateral talks, and have conducted a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the Swedish King's visit.

The total travel time of Oscar II's visit to the Netherlands will be more than 2 months. His visit to the Netherlands is fully scheduled. During this period, he will transit through Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the European part of the Netherlands, and will also temporarily stop in the Kingdom of Greece and will not pass through the British-controlled Suez Canal. After entering the Indian Ocean, it went directly south along the Atlantic Ocean to the Dutch Congo Territory to stop, then turned directly east at the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at the Dutch offshore island of Madagascar to stop for a day. After crossing the Indian Ocean, it rested for a day in Pas, Western Australia, on the Australian mainland.

At present, Oscar II will not continue to spend time on the ship and arrive in Melbourne. Instead, he is preparing to take a special train directly in Perth, cross the Australian continent to the east, and visit the capitals of Melbourne and Sydney.

On arrival Melburnians will attend a memorial to the railway's construction route and attend a friendly exchange between William IV and Queen Alexandra for the couple.

"King's Evening News" also revealed that the next day of the visit to Melbourne will be the highlight, and "formal welcome ceremony-King meeting-joint press conference-state guest dinner" will be held one after another.

On the third day, Oscar II will deliver a joint speech between the Senate and the House of Representatives at the Dutch Parliament Building, and then receive a briefing on the situation from the Dutch military leadership.

In addition to the diplomatic schedule, Oscar II will also complete the investment declaration ceremony for Swedish support for Dutch capital, the Swedish-Dutch Business Roundtable, the Swedish-Dutch Advanced Industrial Industry Forum, and visit the Adelaide Shipyard of the Netherlands, which leads the world, for a closer look. The most advanced third-generation underwater submarine in the Netherlands has a 500-nautical-mile endurance (the United Kingdom, France, the United States and other countries are still in the second-generation 100-nautical-mile endurance, and they also imitate Dutch technology after purchasing Dutch products), attended Sweden-Dutch non-governmental friendly cultural exchange activities, and attended Government-party exchange activities between the two countries.

In particular, Oscar II will attend many relevant economic activities this time, and it is obvious that most of them come to Sweden to invest in and build the country.

During his visit to Sydney, in addition to these events, William IV will hold conversations with a number of academics from the University of Sydney and deliver a lecture at the University of Sydney.

The Swedish semi-official newspaper claimed that the core issue of Oscar II's visit is an alliance that combines pragmatic diplomacy, security and economics.

Melbourne, Australia.

Cantur’s analysis of William IV stated:

“With Britain and the Netherlands at odds, Sweden’s old rival the Tsarist Empire also pursuing external ambitions, and the German Empire across the sea awakening like a sleeping lion, and Sweden facing these heightened threats, how can we Detailed deployment of eye-catching deterrence that can contain and control the response to threats is the key.

The concept of eye deterrence means that if Sweden is deterred by these neighboring powers, the Netherlands will initiate other protective measures to assist Sweden, such as economic sanctions against countries that threaten Sweden. The Netherlands will join forces with the world's allies to put pressure on countries that Sweden invades. , forcing it to retreat, etc., these have improved Sweden's security and provided the Netherlands with a similar deterrent effect when its homeland is threatened. "

He said with a smile: "Everything is as your Majesty originally guessed. The United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway is in an awkward position. It has the territory of a top European power, but it has a population of only 12 million. Facing neighboring powers such as Britain, Germany, and Russia, which often have more than 30 million, I feel hesitant, and the industrial strength is relatively weak, and the economy is only average in Europe. The cold weather makes the people more interested in life in the southern world, so they have to move closer to us.

After all, the Netherlands cannot threaten Sweden in Europe,"

William IV called Cantur alone this time, but many things were confidential and no one knew. In fact, he had been plotting against Sweden and other allies. Especially this time, how could Cantur In recent years, the plan has been to tighten the relationship between the Netherlands and Sweden, making Sweden closer to the Netherlands more obvious, because this day has long been anticipated.

Sometimes William IV had to say that this guy Cantur was very comfortable in the political intrigues.

The royal think tank has been left to him to manage, which has indeed made William IV much more relaxed in recent years.

He specified the plan and this guy implemented it. The division of labor was clear and the effect was remarkable.

Cantur: “Since Oscar II inherited the throne in 1873, he wanted to improve relations with the Russian Empire from the beginning, and then flirted with Germany and the United Kingdom, but in the end we destroyed everything.

Especially since the 1960s, when His Majesty and former Swedish King Carl XV pushed for closer Dutch-Swedish relations, the economy has become even more integrated. At present, Sweden's largest capital family, the Wallenberg family, is closely related to our East India Company, Far East Group, The three major companies including the Dutch United Industries Group have business relationships, and even have mutual equity participation in them.

So in fact, the Netherlands’ economic penetration in Sweden is very serious, and Oscar II also knows this, so Sweden is currently between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and it can only choose to stand on our side.”

William IV nodded.

Indeed, although Oscar II was unwilling to accept the Netherlands' boss status in Dutch-Swiss relations when he first took office in 1873, he had to relent after running into many obstacles in the end.

One year after taking office in 1874, it even promoted the Netherlands and Sweden to continue discussing related issues through high-level extended deterrence strategic consultations and other cooperation programs, and developed cooperation plans such as "intelligence sharing, consultation in times of crisis, joint planning, and joint implementation."

As Cantur, the leader of the Dutch royal family’s global think tank, said, “I hope this will be an opportunity to further consolidate the defense posture of the Netherlands and Sweden and more concretely launch the extended deterrence mechanism between the two countries.”

Cantur: Sweden is preparing to take His Majesty Oscar II's visit to the Netherlands as an opportunity. The extent of the agreement the two sides will reach and what content will be clearly stipulated will attract attention, including other allies of the Netherlands.

The two countries are finalizing plans to coordinate the King's talks in a joint declaration or to explicitly stipulate relevant issues in separate documents.

Your Majesty, Sweden's public attention this time has obviously given us the Netherlands face in front of Europe and the world. I have to say that Oscar II came prepared this time, and we need to express our gratitude. That’s what others do”

William IV: "As it should be"

Cantur: “The banner of economic diplomacy is to strengthen the alliance of cutting-edge industrial technology. As shown by the recent passage of the Automotive Supply Chain Reduction Act and the Machine Tool Support Act by the Dutch Parliament, the Netherlands’ trade protection tendency and our own Centrism is becoming more and more intense. In this case, how much share the economic interests of allies such as Sweden, Denmark, South America, Spain and even the United States can maintain in the Dutch economic link are also a concern for all countries.

So this time I have long guessed that Oscar II will be worried about Sweden being reduced by our share. Therefore, this economic topic will be an important topic in the talks between His Majesty and him.

Regarding suspense issues such as the Automotive Supply Chain Bill, many Swedish economic officials currently say that the firm will for the alliance shared by the two kings has been reducing corporate uncertainty, and a comprehensive cooperation plan with a large framework may be discussed during the king's meeting."

"As Oscar II publicly expressed his expectations before his visit to Sweden, he hoped that this state visit would be an opportunity for both companies to discuss through dialogue between business people directly responsible for building and strengthening the automotive supply chain in both countries. Plan to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. And is promoting the signing of dozens of memorandums of understanding in response.

In addition, in order to strengthen cooperation in Sweden's heavy industry, light industry, military and defense construction and other cutting-edge technological fields, Oscar II is also preparing to hold talks with His Majesty, emphasizing that he hopes more Dutch capital will enter Sweden to invest and create employment. At the same time, he also hopes that the Netherlands will be owned by Sweden. The world's best steel smelting technology is the foundation, which can drive Swedish heavy industry to the forefront of Europe's industrial power."

William IV: "It seems that our ally has a lot of expectations. I have to say that we cannot let it down."

The news of Oscar II's visit to the Netherlands has aroused the attention of countries around the world. Countries big and small want to find their own interests in it. Big countries are competing. Small countries want to see if they can conduct a similar visit and get benefits from the Netherlands. This is human nature. a common thing,