King Charles III to attend Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda on Friday
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King Charles III is scheduled to arrive in Antigua and Barbuda on Friday for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where he will meet with leaders of the organisation’s 56 member states.
Discussions are expected to focus on climate change, trade and development, although some Caribbean leaders have argued that slavery reparations should feature prominently on the agenda.
Charles is travelling on a nine-day official Caribbean tour and arrived in Guyana on Thursday, following a visit to the Bahamas.
The British monarch is expected to spend two days in Guyana, where he will meet with President Irfaan Ali, business owners and elected leaders of Indigenous villages, known as toshaos.
Guyana, a former British colony, was the site of one of the largest slave revolts in the Caribbean during the colonial era.
Ali invited Charles to visit the South American country and has publicly called for Britain to apologise for its role in slavery, as Caribbean leaders intensify their push for reparations.
In a recent interview with ITV News, Ali said Charles had “rightfully recognized slavery as the darkest days in human history”.
“Moving to the apology is the next step,” he added. “You exploited the region. You destroyed lives. You created underdevelopment.”
The British government has consistently rejected calls for an apology or reparations.
Hilary Beckles, chairman of the Caribbean Reparations Commission, said recently that the region was better prepared than ever to confront Britain and the monarchy over their historical links to slavery.
“The region is mobilized, the governments are mobilized,” he said.
The commission was established by Caribbean governments to pursue reparations from Britain and other former European slave-trading nations for their role in slavery.
Guyana, which has a population of about 840,000, has also emerged as one of the world's major offshore oil producers following the discovery of substantial oil deposits off its coast more than a decade ago.
About 36 per cent of the population is Black, while approximately 50 per cent is of East Indian descent, tracing its ancestry to indentured labourers brought from India after the abolition of slavery.
Charles last visited Guyana in 2000, when he was still a prince.
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