US President Joe Biden has announced that he will not be present at the coronation of Charles III on May 6 in Westminster.
You won’t have to look for Joe Biden among the approximately 2,000 people expected on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. The President of the United States announced on Tuesday April 4 that he will not attend the coronation of King Charles III. The United States will be represented by his wife, Jill Biden.
According to the White House, Joe Biden mentioned his absence during a telephone interview with Charles III on Tuesday. In a statement released afterward, the US president expressed excitement about meeting Britain’s king ‘soon’. He himself will be touring the UK and Ireland from April 11-14.
Three days of festivities
The reason for her absence during the coronation was not mentioned but Jill Biden expressed her “eagerness to attend the ceremony on behalf of the United States”. At the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, President Eisenhower was not present either. The Biden spouses, on the other hand, attended the funeral of the sovereign in London last year.
Beyond the coronation itself, three days of festivities are organized in the United Kingdom from May 6. A “big lunch” is notably planned, through neighborhood parties, as well as a concert at Windsor Castle which 10,000 British people drawn by lot will be able to attend.
According to the White House, Joe Biden and Charles III also took advantage of Tuesday’s telephone interview to salute “the power of the relationship uniting [leurs] two countries” and congratulate themselves “on the friendship that exists between [leurs] two peoples”.
