Queen Elizabeth's funeral: From Biden to Putin, who will and will not be attending

On 19 September, the day of the Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, over 500 world leaders will be present in London to pay their last respects to the British monarch, as reported by CNN citing a British government source.

US President Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, received a personal invitation from Buckingham Palace. A White House spokesperson said that the pair have confirmed their attendance at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

Other world leaders that are attending are: French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Austrian Alexander Van der Bellen, and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, among others.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand will be represented by their respective Prime Ministers, Anthony Albanese, Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Sri Lankan Ranil Wickremesinghe will also be attending the event.

Representatives from royal families from around the globe are also attending, including King Philip and Queen Matilda of Belgium and Emperor Naruhito of Japan.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will arrive from Spain. The invitation was also extended to the former Spanish king, Juan Carlos and his wife Sofia, who currently reside in Dubai. The latter has raised a bit of controversy in the Iberian country, for the judicial issues in which the former Spanish monarch is involved.

From the Vatican, however, no official news has yet arrived: it has not yet been established who will be part of the delegation from the Holy See.

Many will pay their last respects to the late Queen, who for 70 years has represented the United Kingdom in the world. But Westminster Abbey, where Queen Elizabeth II's funeral will be held, will not welcome all the leaders...there are a few individuals who are not welcome at this important diplomatic event.

The condolence message sent by Putin to King Charles III was not enough to earn him an invitation to this historic event. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the British Foreign Office informed the Russian embassy in London that it would "refrain from sending invitations to the Russian party, including to the leadership of the Russian embassy, to the funeral events on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II."

Maria Zakharova said in a statement: "We view this British attempt to use a national tragedy that has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world for geopolitical purposes to settle scores with our country during the days of mourning as profoundly immoral." Zakharova then added that the snub was "blasphemous to the memory of Elizabeth II."

As CNN explains, all countries with which the UK maintains close diplomatic relations are usually invited to attend a state funeral. After the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the strong and solid condemnation of the British government against Moscow's actions meant that the relationship between the two countries certainly cannot be defined as friendly or close.

The conflict in Ukraine is also the reason why the Minsk government has not received an invitation for the final farewell of Queen Elizabeth II. Belarus' support for Russia precluded any possibility of Aleksandr Lukashenko attending the funeral. We must remember that the Russian tanks that left for Kiev departed from Belarus, and the close relationship between the two heads of state is undoubted.

Bashar Al-Assad, president of Syria, will not be there either. For years, the UK has reduced relations with Syrian diplomacy, accusing the Damascus government of, among other things, supporting Putin. Furthermore, on three occasions since 2017 the government headed by Bashar Al-Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons on its own people.

Nicolás Maduro is the only Latin American leader who will not attend the funeral of the British monarch. Relations between the two countries are not the best.

For example, the ruling by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales denied Maduro access to the huge gold reserves held in the Bank of England as part of a trial in which he is opposed to Juan Guaidó, recognized in 2019 as the "interim" president of Venezuela by the United Kingdom and other Western countries.

The British government, given the events of recent times, does not want presence of the Taliban government at the funeral of its Queen and, therefore, no invitation has been sent to Afghanistan. London accuses the government of Kabul, recaptured by the Taliban in August 2021, of trampling women's rights and silencing political opponents.

Since February 2021, the United Kingdom has reduced its diplomatic presence in the country, following the military coup that overthrew the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, violently repressing the protests. The UK government has since imposed numerous sanctions, both financial and personal, to target "those responsible for undermining democracy and the rule of law". An invitation from Buckingham Palace most certainly wasn't expected.