Queen Elizabeth II Wraps Up Nostalgic Malta Trip

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II is wrapping up a nostalgic visit to Malta, where she joked that Canada’s youthful new leader had made her feel old.

The British monarch has close ties to the Mediterranean island, where she lived between 1949 and 1951 while her husband, Prince Philip, was in the Royal Navy.

On Saturday she was taking a boat trip across the Grand Harbor in the Maltese capital, Valletta, and watching a polo match at Marsa racecourse. It’s the last day of a three-day state visit that saw the monarch open a summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth of Britain and many of its former colonies.

She was toasted at a banquet by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose father Pierre governed Canada for more than a decade from 1968. Trudeau recalled the monarch’s many visits to his country, saying she had “seen more of Canada than most Canadians.”

The queen thanked 43-year-old Trudeau “for making me feel so old.”

At 89, the queen has given up long-haul travel so is unlikely to attend the next biennial Commonwealth gathering, which is held in a different nation each time.

Her stature and enthusiasm have helped unite a diverse, diffuse organization whose member nations are home to more than 2 million people on five continents.

The Commonwealth espouses good governance, economic growth and human rights but has often struggled to define its role in the world.

This year’s summit, which ends Sunday, has included talks on combating climate change, violent extremism and corruption.

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged his fellow Commonwealth leaders to eliminate the “cancer” of corruption, saying “rooting out corruption is crucial to global prosperity and security.”

Commonwealth leaders also selected British politician Patricia Scotland as the organization’s next secretary-general. Scotland, who was born in the Caribbean nation of Dominica, was attorney general under British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and is now a member of the House of Lords.