Last update:November 23, 2024, 4:14 p.m. IST

The King and Queen of England made a “private stopover” at a wellness center in Bangalore last month, upon their return from Australia and Samoa.

King Charles III with his wife, Queen Camilla, at Buckingham Palace, London. (Image: (Aaron Chown/PA via AP))

London: Britain’s King Charles III is planning an official visit to India soon as part of a government charm offensive and to improve his health since a cancer diagnosis earlier this year, media reported on Saturday British.

According to the Daily Mirror, the visit will also include stops in Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of a subcontinental tour that had been abandoned following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022.

The 76-year-old monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, 77, made a “private stopover” at a wellness resort in Bangalore last month as they returned from Australia and Samoa and are likely to plan a back.

“It is extremely encouraging to be able to make such plans for the King and Queen given the year the monarch has had, but we are full steam ahead,” a source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“A tour of the Indian subcontinent is in the offing, which will be of considerable political and cultural significance for Britain on the world stage. The King and Queen are perfect ambassadors at such a time,” the source said.

Buckingham Palace revealed the king’s cancer diagnosis in February and a spokesperson has since confirmed that with his medical treatment going well, they were looking at a “fairly normal overseas tour schedule for the year next”.

Against this backdrop and during the recent meeting between Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Brazil, Downing Street is reportedly keen to recruit senior royals to launch a so-called charm offensive as post-Brexit Britain is seeking closer economic ties with India.

“Foreign Office officials have been given the green light to open discussions with potential host countries for royal visits, and proposals for visits to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are being developed. “Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly expressed his desire to host King and Queen Camilla after they had to cancel their trip last time,” the ‘Daily Mirror’ report claims.

The couple’s last official visit to India was in 2019, when Charles was Prince of Wales, with priority areas being climate change, sustainability and social finance. Most recently, in October, they stopped at the Soukya International Holistic Health Center (SIHHC) in Whitefield, a suburb of Bangalore, to “help break the long journey home” from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). ) in Samoa.

Palace officials said it was not related to the king’s health or ongoing medical treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. The private stop would have been part of the appropriate rest periods advised by Charles’s doctors as part of the first long-distance royal tour since his diagnosis.

Both the King and Queen are known for their affinity with the concept of holistic health and wellness, with Charles and Modi known to have discussed the many benefits of yoga and Ayurveda during the latter’s visit to the United Kingdom in April 2018.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)

Location :

London, United Kingdom (UK)