The Queen's funeral is on Monday, with world leaders heading to London
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| Queen Elizabeth II |
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is on Monday. Heads of state and government of various countries including US President Joe Biden are going to UK to join it. Many have already reached that country.
The Queen's funeral will take place at London's Westminster Abbey at around 11am on Monday. About two thousand guests will attend it. US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden left for London on Saturday to join it. However, no former president of the United States is attending the Queen's funeral with Biden. However, the United States has had 14 presidents since Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne until her death. Of these, 13 Presidents have met the Queen. During the visit, Biden, however, will meet with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss. This will be their first meeting as the head of government.
Kings and queens of various countries including Japan, Spain, Belgium, Denmark are attending the queen's funeral. However, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been invited from Saudi Arabia to join it.
The heads of government of different countries are participating in this event. Among them are Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, French President Emmanuel Macron, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian President Draupadi Murmu, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan and others.
Six heads of state or government were not invited to the Queen's funeral. These six countries are Russia, Myanmar, Belarus, Syria, Venezuela and Afghanistan.
Sources say that UK does not have diplomatic relations with Syria and Venezuela. As a result they were not invited. And Afghanistan was not invited due to the current political situation. The UK has sanctions on officials of Myanmar's junta government over atrocities against the Rohingya population and the ousting of the elected Suu Kyi government. And because of the war in Ukraine, the West, including the United Kingdom, has sanctions on Russia. Similar restrictions apply to Belarus. As a result, representatives of these countries are not present at the Queen's funeral.
However, Russia has criticized this decision of the United Kingdom. Last Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the UK is trying to use the mourning for geopolitical purposes. It is highly unethical.
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