Wire reporting: (AP, via Arab News), (Reuters, via Daily Maverick)

King Charles III is due to address Commonwealth leaders in Antigua on Tuesday on the transatlantic slave trade, Buckingham Palace told BBC News, as he ends a nine-day Caribbean tour¹.

CBS News said the tour began in the Bahamas, continued through Guyana and was to reach Antigua and Barbuda for a Commonwealth heads of government meeting where leaders were expected to discuss slavery's legacy². Al Jazeera said Caribbean leaders at the summit are expected to press Britain on colonialism and slavery after Charles joined a Junkanoo parade in the Bahamas⁴.

A Palace spokesperson, as reported by BBC News, said the King would speak about shameful aspects of the past on this visit, with honesty and sorrow, while respecting talks among governments at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting¹. The same account said the spokesperson declined to have the King address U.K. government policy¹.

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was open to a formal British apology for the slave trade, BBC News reported, adding the Palace had been told in advance and did not change the speech¹. BBC News said the British government has never formally apologised for slavery or offered to pay reparations¹.

The Independent reported Burnham wrote that listening to calls for a formal apology would be part of a structured dialogue and that he does not believe financial reparations are the right answer³. Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said an apology would be the next step after Charles recognized slavery as among the darkest days in human history, The Independent reported³. The same account said the King visited Independence Park in Georgetown, where people involved in the 1823 Demerara Rebellion were hanged, before leaving Guyana³.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, in a Nov. 1 Independence Day address carried by Antigua News Room, said his government is advancing talks on reparatory justice with the United Kingdom at the meeting that began the next day⁵. Browne said the history of slavery is painful and that its consequences have not disappeared, and that the country's pursuit of reparatory justice deserves seriousness and sustained international engagement⁵. He also said Antiguans and Barbudans have chosen to remain a constitutional monarchy and that any change belongs to them through constitutional processes⁵.

CBS News said protesters in the Bahamas carried signs seeking compensation and that Palace officials have said a formal apology is a matter for the government, not the royal family². IOL described the tour as taking place under pressure for apology and reparations and amid climate risk to low-lying islands⁶. France 24 and Daily Maverick likewise framed the visit around growing Caribbean calls for Britain to answer for slavery^13,18.

The speech itself had not been delivered when these accounts were published^1,2,3.