President of Iceland Guðni Th. Jóhannesson and First Lady Eliza Reid are on their first official visit to His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, RÚV reports. The schedule for the three-day visit includes a meeting with the Swedish Prime Minister, and observing a research study concerning the Icelandic horse. The pair is accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson and a small delegation representing the academic community, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the office of the President.
The visit began with a formal reception in the royal palace, where the King and Queen welcomed the couple. The President will then meet with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven while the First Lady gives a lecture on literature and translation at the Stockholm City Library. The evening will close with a celebration for the presidential couple and their escorts at the royal palace.
Tomorrow, the President will visit eco-friendly housing in Stockholm while the First Lady visits a large grocery store which is implementing a plan to reduce food waste for the benefit of low-income people.
The third day of the visit the guests will visit an agricultural university in Uppsala, where they will learn about a study concerning the Icelandic horse and hear a short lecture on Nordic literature. They will also see the Uppsala-Edda, a historically significant medieval manuscript. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will then present the Swedish government with a set of 400 Swedish translations of the Icelandic sagas in five volumes.
