​(Communicated by the President’s Spokesperson)
 
President Reuven Rivlin this morning (Wednesday, 8 March 2017) met at his residence with UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Boris Johnson who was visiting Israel, and asked him to extend an invitation for a representative of the Royal family to visit Israel, noting the upcoming anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
 
The President told the Foreign Secretary, "It is a pleasure to welcome you back to Israel, this time as Foreign Secretary," and added, "This is a very important year in the history of the relations between Israel and the United Kingdom. We will mark 100 years since the Balfour Declaration and I am greatly honored to extend an official invitation to the Royal family to visit Israel to mark this event."
 
The Foreign Secretary thanked the President for his warm welcome and said of the Balfour Declaration centenary, "Mr. President, this is indeed an important moment and we are looking forward to the commemorations."
 
He added, "We see our historic role in Israel and in the region, and we want to bolster and build our bilateral relations. The future is cooperation."
 
The two went on to speak at length about the history of the region, as well as more recent developments, and the hopes for a resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.