The King has entrusted his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Edinburgh, with an emotional task on his behalf.
As revealed by Buckingham Palace on Saturday, the Duchess will be visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina on a solo tour of the Balkan state.
Her Royal Highness will be the first member of The Royal Family to visit the country since Princess Anne in 2015, however, there was never meant to be a ten year gap between trips.
In 2020, The King – who was then Prince of Wales – was due to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina to mark the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide.
However, Covid-19 meant the visit was postponed, with only now the visit being readapted for the Duchess of Edinburgh and the 30th anniversary of the genocide.
The King has written a message for the occasion, and has tasked Sophie with reading it on her tour.
Whilst the contents of the message won’t be known for another week, it is expected His Majesty will reflect on the the genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys 30 years ago in the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.
The King is also likely to reflect on the forced cancelation of his own visit to the region back in 2020.
The visit, which will take place from Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th July 2025, will be Sophie’s first visit to the Balkan state.
The 60-year-old royal will lay a flower in remembrance of genocide victims, before meeting some of the mothers of Srebrenica, who lost relatives, including sons, husbands and fathers.
Other engagements that the Duchess of Edinburgh will undertake includes a visit to Sarajevo’s Old Town, where she will hear from a local female peace builder, learning more about the impact of the conflict on women and the role they play in reconciliation.
The 60-year-old royal will also attend a meeting with the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which works across ethnic divides to find missing persons from the 1990s war, and a discussion with survivors of conflict related sexual violence, an issue about which The Duchess has long raised awareness.
