A sunny autumn welcome, a royal carriage procession, a state banquet and a personal connection stretching back generations marked Vietnamese President Tô Lâm’s three-day state visit to Denmark from 19 to 21 October 2026. King Frederik X and Queen Mary hosted the President and his wife, Ngô Phương Ly, in a programme combining royal traditions with Danish culture, science and hospitality.
Copenhagen greeted the Vietnamese presidential couple with sunshine on Monday morning, 19 October. Although temperatures were only around 10 degrees Celsius, the weather provided a pleasant autumn setting as King Frederik and Queen Mary welcomed their guests at Copenhagen Airport.
The Royal Life Guards played the Vietnamese national anthem before the King and President inspected the guard of honour. The two couples then travelled to Kastellet for a wreath-laying ceremony before continuing by horse-drawn carriage, escorted by the mounted Guard Hussars, to Amalienborg Palace.
The presidential couple stayed at Christian VII’s Palace at Amalienborg during their visit.
A special connection through Prince Henrik
For King Frederik and Queen Mary, the visit had a personal dimension.
King Frederik’s late father, Prince Henrik, spent the first five years of his life in Hanoi and returned to Vietnam as a young man. His memories of the country helped shape Frederik’s own childhood impressions of Vietnam.
Speaking at the state banquet at Christiansborg Palace on Monday evening, the King recalled how his father’s stories had inspired his imagination long before he first visited Vietnam in 1997.
Frederik and Mary subsequently accompanied Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik on a state visit to Vietnam in 2009. They returned for an official visit in 2022, when they were still Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
In his banquet speech, the King said that he and Queen Mary had looked forward to reciprocating the warmth they had experienced during their own visits to Vietnam.
The King also presented President Tô Lâm with the Order of the Elephant, Denmark’s highest royal order.
Queen Mary introduces Vietnamese First Lady to Danish culture
While the President attended political and scientific engagements, Queen Mary accompanied Ngô Phương Ly on a programme offering a closer look at Danish cultural life.
On Monday, they visited a Copenhagen public library and cultural centre, Biblioteket at Rentemestervej, where they learned about activities for children, school classes and met local residents.
They also visited the historic Court Theatre at Christiansborg, where dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet demonstrated the distinctive Bournonville ballet tradition.
Meanwhile, King Frederik accompanied President Tô Lâm to the Niels Bohr Institute, where the visitors were introduced to Danish quantum research and shown a laboratory.
Monday evening brought the formal highlight of the visit: a state banquet hosted by the King and Queen at Christiansborg Palace. Crown Prince Christian joined the royal couple, the presidential delegation and invited Danish guests.
Lunch in a rooftop greenhouse
Tuesday’s programme offered a more informal setting for the First Lady.
Ngô Phương Ly visited Copenhagen Contemporary, where she explored an exhibition featuring artists connected to Greenland and took part in an artistic workshop with schoolchildren.
Queen Mary later joined her for lunch at Gro Spiseri, a restaurant situated in a greenhouse on the roof of ØsterGro, an urban farm in Copenhagen’s Østerbro district.
The rooftop farm grows organic vegetables, herbs and flowers, while the restaurant serves seasonal food using local produce.
For the Vietnamese First Lady, the visit offered an introduction to a small-scale Danish approach to urban farming and sustainable food production.
The presidential couple also met Vietnamese residents from Denmark, Iceland and southern Sweden at a gathering organised by the Vietnamese Embassy.
The meeting provided an opportunity to recognise the Vietnamese communities living in the Nordic countries and their contribution to relations between Vietnam and their adopted home countries.
Vietnamese music in Copenhagen
On Tuesday evening, the Vietnamese presidential couple reciprocated the royal hospitality by hosting a cultural event and concert at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen.
King Frederik and Queen Mary attended the event, which celebrated the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Denmark and Vietnam.
Denmark was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with North Vietnam in 1971.
Today, more than 18,000 Danish citizens have Vietnamese roots, providing another important human connection between the two countries.
A final tour of Copenhagen Harbour
On Wednesday morning, King Frederik accompanied President Tô Lâm on a boat tour of Copenhagen Harbour.
The programme included views of the Middelgrunden offshore wind farm and Lynetteholm, the new artificial peninsula being developed to protect Copenhagen against storm surges and eventually provide space for a new urban district.
The King and President were briefed on the projects and Denmark’s experience in renewable energy and climate adaptation.
After the harbour tour, the two men walked back towards Amalienborg, where King Frederik explained the history of the palace complex and its four buildings.
The visit concluded with an official farewell at Christian VII’s Palace, where King Frederik and Queen Mary said goodbye to President Tô Lâm and Ngô Phương Ly before their departure from Copenhagen.
A friendship renewed
Beyond the royal ceremonies and cultural encounters, the visit also produced a significant diplomatic result.
During talks with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark and Vietnam agreed to elevate their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
A series of agreements between Danish and Vietnamese companies was also announced, covering renewable energy, transport, healthcare, education and industrial cooperation.
ScandAsia has reported separately on the new strategic partnership and the individual business agreements concluded during the visit.
For the Danish Royal Family, however, the three days also represented something more personal: an opportunity to welcome guests from a country that has been part of the family’s history since Prince Henrik’s childhood in Hanoi.
The visit ended with a renewal of that longstanding connection, this time with King Frederik and Queen Mary as hosts.
