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The UK's King Charles will face a $260 billion bill for compensation for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade. King Charles will attend a Commonwealth leaders' summit later this week. The annual meeting brings together leaders of 56 states that were once territories or colonies of the British Empire. Fifteen nations will raise the issue of slave trade reparations at the summit. Barbados' prime minister said the UK needed to atone for its past atrocities. A UN judge said the amount of reparations for damage done by Britain during the slave trade was $25 trillion.
The UK foreign secretary has spoken of how his ancestors heard "twisted lies of imperialism as they were…turned into slaves". In 2018, he tweeted: "As Caribbean people, we are not going to forget our history. We don't want an apology. We want reparations." Conversely, a possible future chairman of the UK Conservative Party suggested Commonwealth countries should pay the UK for its role in abolishing slavery. He tweeted: "They ought to pay us for ending slavery. It is not something any other country had done, and we were motivated by Christian charity."
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