For the first time in 40 years, Queen Elizabeth II will skip the Commonwealth summit to be held in Sri lanka in November, deciding to send her son Prince Charles instead for the biennial event.
87-year-old Queen will miss the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) for the first time since 1973, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday.
“I can confirm that the Queen will be represented by the Prince of Wales. The reason is that we are reviewing the amount of long-haul travel that is taken by the Queen. As a result of that, she won’t be travelling to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting later this year”, a spokesman said.
This year’s CHOGM has been mired in controversy, with campaigners including Amnesty International calling for not holding the summit until an investigation is carried out into alleged human rights abuses in the final six months of the 26-year Sri lankan civil war.
Britain is facing pressure to lead a boycott of the meeting, with Canada indicating that it will not attend unless specific criteria are met.
Meanwhile, Sri lanka on Tuesday welcomed the attendance of Britain's Prince Charles in place of Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth summit later this year in Colombo.
Buckingham Palace said that the Queen would be represented by Prince of Wales Charles, next-in-line to the British throne in a bid to ease the burden on his elderly mother. PTI