King Joins a Green Ship in Antigua as CHOGM Formally Opens

King Charles spent the eve of the formal Commonwealth opening on the deck of a ship that burns ammonia made from renewable energy as well as diesel, and he spent part of it apologising, in the only way a joke allows, for having asked people to come. Anthony Albanese told him that reporters in Australia had asked why the prime minister was in Antigua. "Because His Majesty invited me," Albanese said. Charles answered: "Oh God, it's all my fault, oh no."

The ship was the Fortescue Green Pioneer, 75 metres, alongside in St John's. Andrew Forrest, the mining billionaire who has argued that green fuels can cut shipping's use of oil, hosted more than a dozen Commonwealth leaders, among them figures from Tonga, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Uganda and Mozambique. Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, was with them. The King spoke with Albanese. He did not make a speech to the group. The event also backed a Commonwealth Nature Initiative, with a fund reported at 280 million Australian dollars, aimed at habitats and oceans through to 2030.

What was said on the water

Albanese used the deck to praise the King and to make a political claim of his own. "Renewable energy will lower costs, not increase them, and will boost economic growth and productivity," he said, and he congratulated those involved, "particularly the leadership of His Majesty King Charles." The King has spent this reign putting climate in the places where a constitutional monarch can still put it: visits, prizes, and other people's announcements. A ship in a Caribbean harbour is one of those places. A communique is not.

The joke matters because the trip has a cost at home for more than one leader. Albanese has been asked why he flew to the Caribbean. Charles has been asked, for a fortnight, what he will say about slavery when he stands up. The Palace has promised unflinching honesty and sincere sorrow. It has also said, again, that the King does not make policy. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson described the role as inspiring and convening, rather than policy making. He is not expected to offer an apology. He is not expected to refer to the shift in the British government's line.

The speech that is not an apology

Today he presides over the opening of a meeting of 56 countries. The leaders then talk, unusually, without aides in the room. Andy Burnham is using that meeting to open a structured dialogue on a formal apology, while ruling out direct reparations and offering a debt reset and 40 million pounds for Caribbean infrastructure. The King and the Prime Minister were photographed together at a Commonwealth Business Forum reception. Standing in the same frame is not the same as sharing a text.

Browne has called for reparations. He has also praised Australia's attendance, the first visit by an Australian leader to the Caribbean in 17 years, and talked of Antigua as a gateway for Australian wine and beef after a Chinese-funded port upgrade. Albanese said he looked forward to respectful discussions between Britain and the countries directly involved, and that Australia was not a party to them. He and Browne have both, on other days, spoken about republics. Nobody put that on the ship's running order.

Sunday's church, Tuesday's lectern

On Sunday the King and Queen were at a service for Antigua's 45 years of independence, in heavy rain, and heard a local call for partnership that included listening. Queen Camilla is with him for the summit days. The working question for the Palace is the one it has carried since Nassau: how a monarch acknowledges a history without settling a bill his ministers have refused to accept. Monday's answer was a ship, a fund for nature, and a one-line joke. Tuesday's answer has to be longer, and it still cannot be the apology.