Queen Mathilde: State Visit #17: Chile

From 23 June to 26 June 2025, King Philippe & Queen Mathilde are be paying a state visit to Chile.

King Baudouin & Queen Fabiola's state visit to Chile in 1965.

22 June 2025

King Philippe & Queen Mathilde were supposed to leave today, but due to a technical problem with their leased plane, the voyage has been delayed for 24 hours. This means the state visit will be shortened from 4 to 3 days.

23 June 2025

A day later than scheduled, the Royal Couple leaves Belgium from Melsbroek airport.

Arrival in Santiago de Chile where they are welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto van Klaveren.

24 June 2025

Queen Mathilde visits Coaniquem, a medical centre that provides free care to children with burns. Coaniquem works together with the University of Antwerp and the Belgian organisation Oscare.

Official welcome by President Gabriel Boric.

Queen Mathilde visits the Museum for Precolumbian Art.

A meeting with Mapuche men and women at La Pinata. The Mapuche are the largest indigenous community of Chile. They have a special bond with Belgium because of the Belgian missionaries who used to work with them on social projects.

Fue un honor recibir en La Pintana a la Reina Matilde de Bélgica. Su visita nos deja un mensaje poderoso: que todos los mundos pueden encontrarse cuando existe una voluntad genuina de conocerse y reconocerse.
Soy habitante de un barrio popular, elegida por mis vecinos para… pic.twitter.com/7xsvOd7vIL
— Claudia Pizarro (@ClaudiaPizarro) June 25, 2025

Belgian reception at the Palacio Cousiño Museum.

25 June 2025

King Philippe & Queen Mathilde leave Santiago for Antofagasta.

A visit to the Paranal telescope in the Atacama desert.

Posing for the press during the observation of sunset.

video: https://x.com/WDehandschutter/status/1938018716081369175

video: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/kijk/2025/06/26/chili-mathilde-filip-telescoop/?autoplay=true

26 June 2025

Visit to SQM Salar El Carmen lithium production plant.

Saying goodbye to the Belgian ambassador in Chile, Count Christian de Lannoy who is none other than the older brother of Princess Stéphanie of Luxembourg. His wife, Luisa Moreno is standing next to him.

And another well known person for King Philippe: Francis Sobry who is Minister Counselor at the Belgian Embassy in Argentina, and who used to be Head of Communications at Court.

Leaving for the flight home ... Or so everybody assumed, but another technical failure of the plane made the flight impossible. And so everybody had to get off the plane and go back to the hotel.