Princess Elisabeth helped welcome a special visitor to the Castle of Laeken on Sunday, joining her father in welcoming former US President Barack Obama to Belgium.
President Obama is in Belgium this weekend for the FTI SuperNova conference in Puurs-Sint-Amands, where he joined in a panel discussion on the future of technology and innovation.
The FTI SuperNova conference is, according to its official website, “the event for tech entrepreneurs, investors & innovation lovers who seek funding or want to be inspired, informed and grow their network all in 2 days.”
The future queen’s attendance at the meeting is due to the fact that she is currently on break from university—Princess Elisabeth is in her third year at Lincoln College, Oxford, where she is reading history and politics.
President Obama’s visit has been billed by the Belgian Royal Court as an informal visit, though he has met with King Philippe previously during the G7 Summit in 2014, where the president was a guest of the King’s.
Princess Elisabeth currently divides her time between the United Kingdom and Belgium, returning home for family events and engagements; though she does not carry out a full schedule of duties as of late.
She has mainly joined in with her family on foreign royal visits, including pre-coronation events last May for King Charles and Queen Camilla; the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa last June; and the 18th birthday celebrations for Crown Prince Christian in Denmark last October.
Her first solo engagement came last December, during a visit to her namesake hospital, the Princess Elisabeth Children’s Hospital in Ghent. She also studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, and took her oath as an officer last fall, becoming a second lieutenant in the Belgian Army.
