By Tony Jones in London

King Charles will resume the royal routine of making regular overseas trips next year, as he adapts to living with cancer.

The monarch will fly abroad during the northern spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official foreign royal trips, provided doctors sanction the travel.

The development comes after he wrapped up his tour of Australia and Samoa with the Queen, which he was “determined” to carry out and was a “perfect tonic” for the head of state, a senior Buckingham Palace official said.

“We’re now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour program for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms,” the palace official said.

An update about the state of the King’s health or his treatment has not been given but the news that Charles will take on more overseas trips suggests his cancer is being managed successfully.

The King “genuinely loved” the tour and “genuinely thrived” on the Australian and Samoan program which ended on Saturday, as it lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery”, the spokesman said.

“In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic”.

He went on to say the monarch takes great strength from the Queen being there, not least because she “keeps it real”.

Australia was a significant visit for Charles as it was his first to the country as King and in Samoa he opened a major Commonwealth summit.

“I think it’s great testament to the King’s devotion to service and duty that he was prepared to come this far and he was incredibly happy and very, very determined to do so.”

The King has been receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer since February and initially postponed all public-facing duties before returning to events with the public in late April.

Maintaining a work schedule after his diagnosis has been an important part of Charles’s holistic approach to his cancer, and during the recent trip he maintained a busy schedule for the benefit of “mind and soul” while the doctor on the trip looked after the body.

During Charles’s welcome by parliamentarians in Canberra he was confronted by Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe who accused him of grievances against First Nations people including “genocide”.

“He was completely unruffled.

“He’s been around a long time. As always, kept calm, carried on,” the palace official said.

He believes “free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and so everyone is entitled to their views”.

Potential issues during a overseas tour are “not ducked”, it’s “very easy to run away from some of these issues”.

“But the King isn’t one for doing that,” said the palace official.

The royal couple took to social media to mark the end of their tour on Saturday.

“As our visits to Australia and Samoa come to a close, my wife and I would like to thank both nations for the warmest of welcomes and for the countless fond memories we will carry in our hearts for many years to come,” they said.

“Even when we are far apart in distance, the many close connections that unite us across the globe and through our Commonwealth family have been renewed, and will remain as profound as they are enduring.”