US President Joe Biden has confirmed he will travel to the UK to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
Mr Biden said he didn’t know what the details of the funeral were yet but said “I will be going.”
The US President was asked by broadcasters: “Are you going the Queen’s funeral sir.”
To which Mr Biden replied: “Yes, I don’t know what the details are yet but I will be going.”
US President Joe Biden
Reuters
Joe Biden, Camilla, Queen Consort and Queen Elizabeth II
Steve Parsons
Mr Biden was then asked: “Have you spoken to the King?”
He added: “No, I haven’t spoken to him, I did not call him yet.”
Speaking following the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Mr Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said she was “more than a monarch”.
A White House statement said: “The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity.
“She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection – whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her platinum jubilee on their phones.
“She, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service.”
The pair said they first met Queen Elizabeth in 1982 and when they made their first overseas trip to the UK as President and First Lady in 2021 “she charmed us with her wit, moved us with her kindness, and generously shared with us her wisdom”.