Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has come to the end of her controversial visit to Oman and Qatar. RNW reporter Maurice Laparlière was on hand to cover events and looks back at the sometimes surprising visit.

Public or private?
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the queen’s trip, especially after she decided to go despite parliament’s disapproval. But once she was on her way, the biggest question in the Netherlands was whether the visit was private or public? A minor detail appears to provide the answer. The Dutch monarch was not wearing a hat when she arrived at the airport, a subtle indication that she was “on her own time”.

Speaking to the press, the queen noted diplomatically that she was a monarch 24 hours a day, but not always acting in her official capacity. Beatrix informed journalists that, after the cancellation of her official visit to Oman due to the political tensions in the country, she was pleased with the invitation to attend a private dinner at the palace of Sultan Qaboos.
 
Pearl diver
The controversy around the Oman visit made for a restrained start to the queen’s tour, but in Qatar the royal visit finally began to take off.
 

 
The first stop on the tour was at the Souq Waqif, the traditional market in the capital Doha. The stiff formality that characterised the first part of the programme gave way to a more relaxed mood as the queen encountered carpet merchants and an old pearl diver who demonstrated his craft, complete with stones tied round his ankles. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander was happy to take a snap of his mother with the old diver. There was not a safety barrier in sight.

Rough and ready
The highlight of the visit, according to many, was the queen’s trip to Shell’s massive Pearl GTL petrochemical plant, the company’s largest in the world. Here too the programme took an unexpectedly informal turn.
 
While a group of Shell’s more highly trained workers, many of them European, were assembled on a viewing platform, a crew of rough and ready oil workers from countries such as the Philippines and Bangladesh had gathered behind the gates, clad in their working overalls with rags to protect their faces from the sun and dust.
 
At the request of the royal visitors, they were invited down for an impromptu meet-and-greet session and the queen took plenty of time to say hello and shake their weathered hands. “An unforgettable experience,” beamed one Shell employee later in the day.
 
Top representatives
While all this was going on, the main thrust of the visit was taking place behind the scenes: promoting Dutch business interests in the region. No less than nine companies had dispatched their top representatives to travel in the wake of the royal party.
 
Maxime Verhagen, Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, was also along for the ride. In contrast to the queen’s subtle statements, he wasted no time getting down to business:
 
“We will be happy to help you in the run-up to the football World Cup in 2022. The Netherlands builds outstanding stadiums. On water and on land. And with all due regard for the environment. That’s something we’ve demonstrated in South Africa and now we’re doing it again in Russia.”
 
It was a message that the queen was happy to reiterate. In typically regal fashion, she pointed out the importance of smaller countries lending each other a helping hand, implying that the Qataris are also welcome to do more business in the Netherlands in future.
 
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