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The Princess Royal will be joined by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, for an official visit to Australia and Singapore next month. The King's sister, 75, will make the long-haul overseas visit from 8 to 13 November to mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals, of which Anne is Colonel-in-Chief. In a statement, Buckingham Palace shared: "The Princess will undertake a series of military engagements in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane during the four-day visit to commemorate the centenary. As President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Her Royal Highness will lay a wreath at the Sydney War Cemetery." It added that the Princess will also lay a wreath at the Anzac Memorial to mark Remembrance. Anne will travel to Singapore for the final two days of the trip to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and the Asian country, at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The Princess is expected to meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during her time in Singapore. She will also visit Kranji War Memorial and the Airbus Asia Training Centre and Rolls-Royce's Seletar campus. The Princess Royal will be the latest member of the royal family to travel Down Under after the King and Queen's nine-day tour of Australia in October 2024. Anne's most recent trips took place in 2022 and 2023, when she visited the Royal Australian Corp of Transport, the Royal Botanic Gardens and New South Wales Mounted Police. Future trip for the Waleses? It comes just weeks after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he is "hopeful" that the Prince and Princess of Wales will travel Down Under in the "coming period". His comments came after he met with the King at Balmoral Castle in September. Following his 90-minute audience with Charles at his Scottish home, the Prime Minister was asked by the media if there were plans for Prince William and Kate to tour Australia. Mr Albanese said: "I'm certainly hoping there will be one, there's a standing invitation that the royal family are always welcome in Australia. It was wonderful to welcome King Charles and Queen Camilla to Australia recently, that had a very successful visit and His Majesty is very engaged and I hope that the Prince and Princess of Wales are able to visit as well and we are hopeful that might occur in the coming period." Prince William and Kate last travelled to Australia together in April 2014, along with their eldest son, Prince George, who was eight months old at the time. At the St Patrick's Day parade in March, the Princess hinted that she wanted to take her three children to Australia and New Zealand, telling officers: "George finds it fascinating that he has been to Australia and New Zealand. I would like to go back there with them now. It's finding time to do that. But I love to travel – yes, it's a long flight. But I love the Middle East because that's familiar to me [from] growing up. There are so many opportunities now to travel, I think it's brilliant to experience it."
