Prime Minister Narendra Modi and heads of 52 other countries agreed on Friday that Britain\u2019s Prince Charles will succeed Queen Elizabeth as the head of the Commonwealth, an issue that has generated much debate in recent times.<\/p>\n
The queen, who turns 92 on Saturday, has been the head since the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952. On Wednesday, she expressed her \u201csincere wish\u201d that Prince Charles succeed her to ensure stability and continuity of the group.<\/p>\n
Given Prince Charles\u2019 interest in the group over the yearsand support from the leaders, agreement on his appointment was a certainty.<\/p>\n
The Leaders\u2019 Statement at the conclusion of the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting said: \u201cWe recognise the role of The Queen in championing the Commonwealth and its peoples. The next Head of the Commonwealth shall be His Royal Highness Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queen\u2019s expression of her wish and Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s remarks thanking her for her contribution over the decades reflected acarefully choreographed move toappoint Prince Charles with the agreement of the leaders of the 53 countries.<\/p>\n
Leaders such as Labour\u2019s Jeremy Corbyn had wanted the head of the Commonwealth not to be confined to the British royal family, but to be rotated among the countries by agreement.<\/p>\n
Given India\u2019s influence, New Delhi\u2019s agreement was crucial. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s support to the queen was key to her appointment as the head of Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Prince Charles met Modi in New Delhi last November to personally invite him to the CHOGM. He carried a letter from the queen that wasdescribed by officials as \u201cvery warm and personal\u201d.<\/p>\n
May\u2019s remarks to the queen on Wednesday were significant: \u201cOver many years you have been the Commonwealth’s most steadfast and fervent champion.You have been true to the deepest values of the Commonwealth \u2013 that the voice of the smallest member country is worth precisely as much as that of the largest; that the wealthiest and the most vulnerable stand shoulder to shoulder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and heads of 52 other countries agreed on Friday that Britain\u2019s Prince Charles will succeed Queen Elizabeth as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28706,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28704\/revisions\/28706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}