The King has held an audience with the president of the German parliament.

Charles, who is expected to become the first British monarch to address the Bundestag during a state visit to Germany later this month, welcomed Barbel Bas to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon.

Charles and Ms Bas shook hands in the Palace’s 1844 Room, with the pair appearing in good humour, laughing as they chatted and greeted one another.

The King’s trip to Germany is expected to follow immediately after a state visit to France, which is due to be Charles’s first official journey abroad since he acceded to the throne.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the reported trips.

Katja Mast, first parliamentary secretary of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, welcomed the forthcoming visit, telling the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that German-British friendship was “extremely important to Europe and the world” post-Brexit and amid the war in Ukraine.

The King previously addressed the Bundestag in Berlin in 2020 as the Prince of Wales.

Charles and the Queen Consort are expected to travel to Paris in the last week of March at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Le Parisien newspaper reported they will attend a state dinner at the Elysee Palace, with Camilla also holding a meeting with France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron.

Charles earlier on Wednesday visited the warehouse and kitchens of the Felix Project food distribution charity in east London, but Camilla pulled out of the engagement while she continues to recover from Covid.