King Charles plans India visit after PM Modi expresses desire to host: Report

Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla are reportedly planning an official royal tour of India early next year, according to UK media. This will mark the King’s first official visit to India since ascending the throne. British officials see the trip as a positive step for the King, following his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
The development came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his enthusiasm to welcome King Charles and Queen Camilla after their previous visit was cancelled, UK newspaper The Mirror reported. The British Foreign Office has authorised officials to begin discussions with India and other potential host nations.
“A tour of the Indian subcontinent is in the offing, which will be of huge political and cultural significance for Britain on the world stage. The King and Queen are the perfect ambassadors at such a time,” a royal source was quoted as saying.
The visit will also include stops in Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of a subcontinent tour that had been abandoned in the wake of the passing of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
In October, King Charles III and Queen Camilla made a private visit to a wellness retreat in Bengaluru, where they spent four days. A royal source told news agency Reuters that the stopover was not connected to his ongoing health issues, but was to allow him to rest while returning from Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The Commonwealth Summit on October 25-26 was his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer.
Buckingham Palace had revealed the King’s cancer diagnosis in February this year. His spokesperson has since confirmed that with his medical treatment progressing well they were considering a “pretty normal-looking full overseas tour programme for next year”.
The couple’s last official visit to India was in 2019, when Charles was the Prince of Wales, with the focus areas being climate change, sustainability and social finance.