The Independent understands that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the state funeral on Monday, September 19, as the two leaders do not usually leave the country on foreign visits at the same time. Instead, the president will offer condolences at the funeral on behalf of the Indian government, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. “In the 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, India-UK ties have evolved, blossomed and strengthened immensely,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “He played an important role in the well-being of millions of people around the world as Head of the Commonwealth.” India, a former British colony for 200 years, declared a day of mourning on September 11 as a “mark of respect” for the queen. On Sunday, the country observed the day without official entertainment and national flags flew at half-mast across the country, an interior ministry statement said. Ms Murmu is India’s newly elected 15th president, sworn in at the end of July after being backed by MPs in a historic moment that saw a politician from an indigenous community take the country’s highest elected office for the first time. The Indian president will attend the state funeral alongside US President Joe Biden and a host of Commonwealth prime ministers – including Canada’s Justin Trudeau, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Australia’s Anthony Albanese. Other leaders to attend the funeral include French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan along with Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. EU President Ursula von der Leyen is also expected to be present. It will be one of the biggest diplomatic gatherings in decades, with nearly 500 foreign dignitaries expected to join the bereaved royal family in London. But the British government has not sent invitations for the queen’s state funeral to Russia, Belarus or Myanmar, Whitehall sources said. Iran, meanwhile, has received an invitation from the State Department but is expected “to be represented only at the ambassadorial level.” Russia was apparently shunned in line with the UK government’s foreign policy, denouncing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Moscow, and its closest ally, Belarus, was left out because it supported the country’s ambitions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend amid the Russian invasion of his country. The Queen’s coffin procession, which began its journey from Balmoral at the weekend, will culminate in a state funeral on Monday to honor the tenure of Britain’s longest-serving monarch. King Charles III approved the day as a national holiday in Britain as one of his first acts as the new monarch. The Queen will be laid to rest in St George’s Chapel, in the grounds of Windsor Castle. It will be laid alongside her ‘strength and stay’ of 73 years, Prince Philip, whose coffin will be moved from the Royal Vault to the memorial to join the Queen’s Chapel.
