President Nikos Christodoulides met King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in The Hague on Wednesday.

The pair met at the Huis ten Bosch palace, where Christodoulides paid his respects and then sat down for a meeting with the King.

At the meeting, they discussed the Cyprus problem, the situations in the Middle East and in Ukraine, and issues “concerning exchanges of experience between Cyprus and the Netherlands” regarding water management.

He then signed the palace visitors’ book, writing “it is with real pleasure that I visit the Kingdom of the Netherlands, for the first time in my capacity as President of the Republic of Cyprus, almost a year after my election.”

He added, “the visit reaffirms that our two countries enjoy particularly cordial and friendly relations, both on a bilateral level and on a European and multilateral level.

“I am personally proud that our two countries, member states of our common European family, are committed to maintaining common universal and irreplaceable principles and values, a fact which is particularly important in these turbulent times,” he wrote.

He is due to meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte later on Wednesday, before returning to Cyprus on Thursday.