Commonwealth countries

Queen Elizabeth II's role in foreign affairs may appear to be a contradiction in terms. As a constitutional monarch, she could take no initiative in these ...

Whatever her view, her belief in close ties with the Commonwealth was reinforced by the decision as Britain sent out emissaries to India, Australia and Canada within weeks of the vote to try to improve trade links. Years later, the Queen admitted that she had spotted Ceausescu in the gardens of Buckingham Palace while walking her dogs during his visit, and had Some leaders complained to the Queen at the 1962 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, and she relayed her disquiet to Macmillan. In 1978, the Queen was obliged by her Labor prime minister, Harold Wilson, to invite the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife to Buckingham Palace. Whitlam’s Labor Party had a majority in the House of Representatives, whose speaker appealed to the Queen to override Kerr and put Whitlam back in office. [turning their backs](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/emperor-s-failure-to-apologise-arouses-angry-protest-by-pows-1.157150) on the carriage that carried Emperor Akihito and the Queen down the Mall in London. It was often said that the Commonwealth continued to exist long beyond the end of the empire solely because of the unity she gave it by her example and dedication. Britain’s closest ally in those wars was America, and 19 years after her post-Suez tour there, she returned for a longer visit in 1976, hosted by President Gerald Ford during the country’s 200th anniversary of its independence from Britain. The Queen became the ultimate diplomatic tool for healing breaches with other nations, or for opening new chapters in relationships between Britain and nations that had for decades been subservient to it but were now sovereign in their own right. She opened the Canadian parliament in person, and addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on behalf of the Commonwealth, many of whose members had voted against Britain at the UN over Suez. As her father’s health began to fail – he was a chain smoker and by his mid-50s was suffering from a fatal lung condition – she began to represent him on foreign tours that he was too ill to complete himself. Nonetheless, during her extensive reign, Britain and the Commonwealth faced foreign policy challenges and upheavals that required consummate diplomatic skill, and the Queen, who has died aged 96, was often enlisted as part of that process, or had to help manage it.

Its expansion on her watch was her proudest accomplishment on the world stage. Her plea, in London in 2018, that Charles be allowed to succeed her as its head ...

No other institution except the monarchy bore the stamp of the Queen’s personality as clearly as the Commonwealth. As leader of such a vast It is not universally admired but in a sense it was her life’s work.

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II is a delicate moment for the British Commonwealth, 14 countries out of which continue to recognise the monarch as their ...

It has, indeed, been argued that with the end of the reign of Elizabeth II, a union that was essentially forged on the basis of subordination and which is tainted by its association with racism and the colonial rule should also be allowed to fade away. In the 1970s, a host of countries chose to leave the Commonwealth realm, including Dominica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, effectively removing the Queen as their head of state. In 1975, Sir John Kerr, the Governor General of Australia, who was the Queen’s representative to the country, unilaterally dismissed the sitting Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam of the Labour Party, to break a parliamentary deadlock, and then commissioned the Leader of Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, to succeed him. In 1995, she visited South Africa to commemorate the end of apartheid, and to induct the nation into the Commonwealth. “The monarchy, with its imperial memory, keenly sought a Commonwealth role, partly to justify itself, but also because it had taken its supra-national role seriously, and — in a way that was never quite understood by politicians — it continued to relate to distant communities which showed their loyalty in ways that did not necessarily come to the attention of Whitehall,” Pimlott wrote. In the latter group of countries, she had some constitutional duties — notably, the approval of new governments and, sometimes, legislation; and the grant of state honours or the appointment of certain officials. The Commonwealth Games — which were hosted by India in 2010 and the latest edition of which was completed in Birmingham, That declaration, formalised through the Statute of Westminster in 1931, marked the founding of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Through her long reign, she visited well over a hundred countries and was likely among the most travelled heads of state in history. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, Rwanda was ruled by the Belgians and Germans, and Togo and Gabon by the French. The British monarch — now King Charles III, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II — is the head of state of these countries. However, in June, Australia’s new government headed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed Matt Thistlewaite as the country’s first minister tasked with overseeing a transition to a republic, which triggered talk that a referendum to remove the Queen as head of state could follow.

The Queen's death closes a pivotal chapter in British history, and sets in motion potential change for the 54 countries she led in the Commonwealth.

["profound sorrow"](https://www.insider.com/prince-william-sorrow-over-history-of-slavery-in-jamaica-speech-2022-3) over the history of slavery while making a speech at a dinner held by Jamaica's Governor General. Later, the duke and duchess were criticized after photos of them [greeting children through holes in a wire fence](https://www.newsweek.com/prince-william-kate-middleton-fence-photos-spark-backlash-jamaica-everything-about-this-wrong-1691048) on a football field in Kingston, Jamaica, were released, Newsweek reported. The results of the referendum were relatively close, with the republicans in favor of ditching the monarch as head of state ultimately losing with an outcome of 45% to 55%. "There's been talk in a number of the Commonwealth monarchies like Jamaica," Morris said. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, told But speculation ended after a 2018 summit of Commonwealth leaders at Windsor Castle, when it was announced [Charles would assume the role](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43840710), a decision made after the Queen had said it was her "sincere wish," the BBC reported. Previously, the last country to have done so was Mauritius in 1992. In March 2021, the former Prince of Wales delivered a But that will likely change with Charles as the head. That said, he will not be embarking on any trips without an invitation from Commonwealth countries, Morris said. In Canada, She was 96 years old.