King Charles III is going to Australia for his first visit since being diagnosed with cancer

King Charles III and Queen Camilla he arrived in Sydney on Friday for the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch in more than a decade, a trip that has reignited debate over the country’s constitutional relationship with Britain.

The sails of the Sydney Opera House have been lit up with images of past royal visits to welcome the couple, whose six-day trip will be short by royal standards. Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to the tour being cut short.

Charles and Camilla were welcomed in light rain at Sydney Airport by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and the king’s representative to Australia, Governor-General Sam Mostyln.

Charles is the second reigning British monarch to visit Australia. his mother, Queen Elizabeth IIit was the first in 70 years.

Although the reception was warm, Australian national and state leaders wanted the royal family removed from their constitution.

Monarchists hope the visit will strengthen Australians’ connection to their monarchy. Opponents hope that the idea of ​​someone from the other side of the world being Australia’s head of state will be rejected.

The Australian Republic Movement, which is campaigning for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as head of state, likens royal visits to entertainment tourism.

ARM this week launched what it calls the campaign “Wave Goodbye to Royal Reign with Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour!”

ARM chairwoman Esther Anatolitis said the royal visit to Australia was “something of a show coming to town.”

“Unfortunately, it’s a reminder that the Australian head of state is not working full-time, he’s not Australian. He’s a part-time person based overseas who is the head of many states,” Anatolitis told AP.

“We say to Charles and Camilla: ‘Welcome, we hope you enjoy our country and good health and good spirits.’ But we also look forward to this being the last trip for a sitting Australian monarch and if they come back for a visit soon, we look forward to welcoming them as visiting dignitaries,” he added.

Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, which campaigns to preserve Australia’s constitutional links with Britain, expects the reaction to the royal couple to be overwhelming.

“Something like a royal visit brings the king closer to people’s minds, because we have a monarchy that doesn’t exist,” Benwell told the AP.

“The king’s visit brings home that Australia is a constitutional monarchy and has a king,” he added.

Benwell criticizes the premiers of all six states, who have declined invitations to attend Charles’ reception in the country’s capital, Canberra.

Each of the prime ministers explained that they had more pressing discussions on the day such as Cabinet meetings and traveling overseas.

“It would be an important job for the prime minister to be in Canberra to meet him and pay his respects,” Benwell said. “Unfortunately, it can be considered boring, because this is not an ordinary visit. This is the first visit of the king to Australia.”

Charles was drawn to the Australian republican debate a few months before his visit.

The Australian Republic Movement wrote to Charles in December last year asking for a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate for their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March that royal meetings would be decided by the Australian government. The meeting with ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.

“Whether Australia becomes a republic … is a matter for the Australian community to decide,” a letter from Buckingham Palace said.

The Associated Press has seen copies of both letters.

Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely considered to be the result of a disagreement over how the president should be chosen rather than support for the king’s majority.

After visiting Sydney and Canberra, 155 miles apart, Charles will then travel to Samoa to open the annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

When his mother made the last of her 16 trips to Australia in 2011 at the age of 85, she visited Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne on the east coast before opening the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the west coast city of Perth.

Elizabeth’s first grueling tour of Australia at the age of 27 took in dozens of remote Outback towns; an estimated 75% of the people of the nation came out to see him.

Australia then had an apartheid policy that favored British immigrants. Immigration policy has been non-discriminatory since 1973.

Anatolitis noted that Australia is very multicultural now, most people are born overseas or have a parent born overseas.

“In the 50s, we didn’t have the global connectivity that we have now,” he said.

In February, Buckingham Palace announced that Charles was being treated for a non-specific type of cancer, revealing that it was diagnosed while doctors were treating an enlarged prostate. After pausing from public appearances for three months, Charles start over royal duties in April.

In March, Kensington Palace announced that Charles’ daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, he was also diagnosed and unspecified cancer diagnosed during abdominal surgery. In September, Catherine announced that he was done Chemotherapy, and “doing what I can to stay cancer-free is now the focus.”