King and Queen to undertake shorter than usual Australia Royal Tour due to King's cancer
King Charles will make his first visit to a Realm, where he remains the Head of State, when he lands in Australia next month on a royal tour which has been curtailed because of his cancer diagnosis.
The King and Queen Camilla’s visit has been confined to Sydney and the capital, Canberra.
Evening engagements have also been severely limited on the orders of the King’s doctors.
Initial plans for the royal tour to take in other Australian states like Queensland and Victoria had to be shelved in collaboration with the Australian government.
New Zealand was taken off the travel itinerary some time ago because of the King’s health.
But the King and Queen will still travel to the Pacific Island of Samoa after leaving Australia for a major Commonwealth summit which is being hosted there.
It will be the King’s first summit as Head of the Commonwealth, a role he assumed upon the death of Queen Elizabeth.
When the Monarch lands in Australia, he will be welcomed there by his official title as King of Australia.
It is the first time since he acceded to the throne that the King has been to one of the 14 countries outside the UK where he remains head of state.
But throughout, royal officials have had to be mindful of not pushing the tour schedule too far and have built in plenty of rest time so the King, who is 75, can recover from his day of engagements.
Palace officials would not comment on whether the King will need any kind of cancer treatment during the trip.
He will, however, meet two celebrated Australian professors who have been leading work on treating the country’s most common cancer, melanoma.
In Sydney Harbour, Charles and Camilla will conduct a Fleet Review of the Royal Australian Navy and, in Canberra, they will pay respects to Australians who have given their lives in conflicts around the world.
The King will also address the Australian Parliament.
Although short by usual royal tour standards, the King and Queen will undertake what royal sources called an “intense schedule” taking in themes on climate change, tackling bush fires and supporting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
In Samoa, which the King has only visited once before when he was serving with the Royal Navy in 1974, Charles and Camilla will embark on a State Visit before he opens the biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit which is being held there.
The last CHOGM meeting was held in Rwanda in 2022 when Boris Johnson was UK Prime Minister and the King was the Prince of Wales and attended on behalf of his mother, the late Queen.
Sir Keir Starmer will be at the Samoa summit, his first Commonwealth gathering as Prime Minister, and will meet leaders from the other 55 member countries.
The King and Queen will be travelling for ten days in total and the whole programme has been approved by Charles’ medical team as they continue to treat his cancer.
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