ST JOHN'S, Antigua and Barbuda — King Charles III acknowledged the "shameful aspects" of Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade on Tuesday. He told Commonwealth leaders gathered in Antigua and Barbuda of his sorrow but stopped short of a formal apology. The address opened the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in the Caribbean in more than a decade.

The speech was the King's most direct treatment of slavery on Caribbean soil since he became monarch. It went further than his remarks at the 2024 summit in Samoa, where he said no one could change the past. Buckingham Palace had signalled beforehand that the address would confront the darker chapters of British history.

Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda and the summit's host, has been one of the region's most vocal advocates of reparations. The Caribbean Community's Reparations Commission has set out a 10-point plan seeking an apology, debt cancellation and development funding from former colonial powers. The British government has repeatedly ruled out financial reparations, saying it preferred to focus on shared future challenges.

Campaigners in the region welcomed the King's tone but said words were not enough. Leaders from Caribbean and African member states were expected to push for stronger reparatory justice language in the summit's final communiqué. That language would build on the 2024 Samoa declaration, which said the time had come for a conversation on the issue.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shirley Botchwey, said the summit would also focus on climate finance and debt relief for small island states. Leaders are due to issue their communiqué at the close of the meeting later this week.