Charles to mark milestone in British-Guyana relations as state visit rolls on

King Charles III smiles after the welcome speech by Governor-General, Dame Cynthia Pratt at a Garden Reception with representatives of Bahamian communities for Bahamians who have made significant contributions through voluntary, public, community and charitable service, at Government House, Nassau (Chris Jackson/PA)

PA Wire

The King will celebrate 60 years of British-Guyana relations when he arrives in the South American nation for a solo state visit.

Charles is making a nine-day tour of the Caribbean culminating in a Commonwealth leaders summit hosted by Antigua and Barbuda and presided over by the King, joined by the Queen, in his role as head of the “family of Nations”.

He will arrive in the former British colony from the Bahamas where he has spent a busy two days.

A few hours after arriving in the Bahamas on Tuesday he acknowledged the “great suffering of the past” and confirmed the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting would discuss the legacy of slavery at the gathering next week.

His tour comes in the wake of renewed calls from Caribbean nations for Britain to apologise for its role in selling enslaved people for profit, and for reparations.

The King will be formally welcomed to Guyana by the country’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Britain’s High Commissioner to the country, Joseph Fisher, and Ed Miliband, following protocol and joining the King on a state visit in his role as Foreign Secretary.

The president and the King will set down for talks before Guyana’s leader hosts a state reception for the King in the garden of state house – his official residence in the capital Georgetown.