Dutch royals meet Merkel after visit to Berlin's Reichstag building

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the chancellery in Berlin on Tuesday, the second day of their three-day state visit.

Details of the half-hour conversation were not released.

Earlier the Dutch royals visited Berlin's Reichstag building housing the German parliament for a meeting with Bundestag President Wolfgang Schaeuble.

They also attended a session of the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament, where the 16 states are represented.

Willem-Alexander thanked the individual states, in particular North Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony, which border the Netherlands, for the assistance provided "when the pandemic was at its height."

Dutch hospitals had transferred some Covid-19 patients across the border for treatment in Germany.

The royal couple later invited German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to a concert of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who had come especially from the Netherlands to play at the Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt, one of Berlin's most famous squares.

On Monday, the royal itinerary took in the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's Anne Frank Centre and Germany's official disease control body, the Robert Koch Institute, which has played a key role in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, they visit Berlin's Technical University and the city's new Humboldt Forum cultural centre.