By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit The Bahamas next month.

Local government officials, speaking anonymously because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, confirmed their expected Royal visit to a Tribune reporter.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected to host a press conference today on the matter.

According to international reports, the couple will also visit Jamaica and Belize in what will be their first major overseas tour since before the pandemic.

The visits will coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Daily Telegraph, a United Kingdom-based newspaper, reported the Royal couple will be in the region for about 12 days.

This newspaper understands that representatives of the monarch were recently in The Bahamas to discuss the planned visit.

The couple will reportedly visit Coral Vita, a coral farm in Grand Bahama focused on reef restoration that was named one of the five $1m winners of the Duke’s inaugural Earthshot prize last year.

Some observers say the planned visit is to help shore up support for the monarchy in the region.

Barbados recently became the latest country to remove the Queen as head of state as it transitioned to a republic.

Since then, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has said The Bahamas will eventually become a republic too, although the process for making the change is more difficult here than in Barbados.

“I suspect that there will be a cascading effect since Barbados - arguably the most conservative of CARICOM societies - has done so,” Mr Mitchell said. “The whole question of whether or not a republic is impatient of debate, but the political reality is that unless the younger generation buys into it, it will go nowhere.

“(Transitioning to a republic) is not the official policy of the government, but in a democracy we must always seek to build a consensus for change and where I am now positioned both in time and space, I do not have the luxury of dithering.”

Prince William’s brother, Prince Harry, visited The Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica in 2012 during a royal tour for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee