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Liz Truss’s authorities will host the most important gathering of international leaders and dignitaries in London for many years, as they descend on the capital for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.
Outstanding figures set to be in attendance embrace US president Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden, France’s president Emmanuel Macron and India’s president Droupadi Murmu.
Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, Australian premier Anthony Albanese, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, president of Germany, may even be within the pews.
The service, which is able to conclude the week-long nationwide mourning interval, will happen at Westminster Abbey within the coronary heart of the capital and be attended by roughly 2,000 individuals.
The presence of heads of state, representatives of abroad governments, international royal households and governors-general will pose big organisational and safety questions.
One senior cupboard minister stated: “Whitehall has been planning the funeral for many years but it surely’s essentially the most sophisticated logistical event you might think about.”
In addition to VIP dignitaries, attendees will embrace recipients of British awards for valour such because the Victoria Cross and George Cross, alongside senior MPs and friends, bishops and representatives of charities supported by the late monarch.
Virtually 200 individuals who had been recognised on this 12 months’s Queen’s Birthday Honours have additionally been invited, together with neighborhood volunteers and people who made extraordinary contributions in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, together with different emergency companies employees.
Though there will probably be no formal bilaterals due to the nationwide mourning interval, Truss is anticipated to carry a number of conferences.
Truss had been anticipated to fulfill Biden on Sunday, however the pair may have their first formal bilateral on the UN Common Meeting in New York Metropolis later this week.
The UK prime minister on Saturday met Albanese and Ardern at Chequers, her nation residence in Buckinghamshire. On Sunday, she was on account of meet Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Canada’s premier Justin Trudeau in Downing Road.
Royal figures in attendance may even embrace Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium and King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway.
International dignitaries will assemble earlier than the occasion on the Royal Hospital, Chelsea earlier than travelling in shared autos to the abbey.
Solely a handful of world leaders — together with these from Russia, Belarus and Myanmar — weren’t invited, reflecting the struggle in Ukraine and a scarcity of full diplomatic relations with the UK.
No representatives from Syria, Venezuela or Afghanistan had been requested to attend, whereas North Korea and Nicaragua have been invited solely at ambassadorial degree.
Conservative MPs and friends expressed issues that an invite had been prolonged to Xi Jinping, president of China, though it’s seemingly that vice-president Wang Qishan will truly characterize the nation.
Beijing final 12 months imposed sanctions on nine individuals, together with 5 Tory MPs and 4 organisations in Britain — in retaliation for the UK’s choice to sanction some Chinese language officers.
Former Tory get together chief Iain Duncan Smith, one of many 5 sanctioned MPs, stated it was “astonishing” that China had been invited given its “big file of human rights abuses”.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will probably be represented by the nation’s international minister, whereas Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Fee is because of attend.
Owing to the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be anticipated to be current however first girl Olena Zelenska is ready
to attend.
The state funeral service, which is able to begin at 11am and final round an hour, will probably be performed by the dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle.
In the beginning of the service, the choir of Westminster Abbey, joined by the choir of the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, will sing 5 Sentences — traces of scripture put to music.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will give a sermon, and Truss and Baroness Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth secretary-general, will learn classes from Corinthians and St John’s Gospel. The teachings will probably be adopted in flip by a specifically commissioned setting of the psalm “Like because the hart” and the hymn “The Lord is my shepherd”.
Different hymns to be performed will embrace “The day thou gavest, Lord, is ending” and “Love divine, all loves excelling”.
After the service the Queen’s coffin will probably be escorted to Wellington Arch en path to Windsor Fort, the place a committal service will happen at 4pm. That will probably be led by the dean of Windsor, David Conner. The rector of Sandringham, the minister of Crathie Kirk close to Balmoral, and the chaplain of the Royal Chapel at Windsor — representing a number of the Queen’s favorite residences — will say prayers.
A personal funeral will happen afterward Sunday night on the King George VI Memorial Chapel in Windsor Fort and the late monarch will probably be buried alongside her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
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