Presidents, prime ministers and monarchs from around the world will travel to London this weekend to pay their respects to the deceased. Queen Elizabeth and attend a reception at Buckingham Palace to be given King Charles the day before the funeral.

Among the guests who have confirmed they will be going to the UK are US Presidents Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Heads of state and other high-ranking officials will gather at the Royal Hospital, a nursing home for veterans in west London, according to a palace spokesman, and from there they will all travel together to Westminster Abbey.

Funerals are expected to be one of the biggest challenges for the Metropolitan Police as presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens and huge crowds flock to central London.

King Charles and his wife Camilla will host a reception at Buckingham Palace on Sunday.

Foreign dignitaries will also be invited to join the public pilgrimage inside Parliament before the funeral. Shortly thereafter, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley will host a reception for guests at the nearby Church House, while members of the royal family will travel to Windsor for the funeral.

Invitations have been sent out to the heads of state of almost the entire world, with some exceptions: the leaders of Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus and Myanmar were not invited. Syria and Venezuela were not invited because the UK does not currently have diplomatic relations with these countries. Afghanistan was not invited due to the political situation in that country, while Russia and Belarus were excluded due to the war in Ukraine. British MPs sanctioned by China criticized the invitation to Beijing and called for a Chinese delegation not to be allowed into Parliament, where a resolution was passed last year calling the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghurs “genocide.”

In all, State Department officials sent out about 1,000 invitations to Sunday’s funeral and royal reception.

Many members of the royal families, for example from Belgium and the Netherlands, have announced that they will go to London. Other politicians attending the funeral will also include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Indian President Draupadi Murmu.

The deadline for countries to accept or decline an invitation is today. The British government will not publish a list of all invited foreign leaders, in part for security reasons.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters}