Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of Sri Lanka, will go to Britain to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s burial, his office stated on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, Wickremesinghe stopped by the British High Commission in Colombo to sign the memorial book. On September 8, the monarch, who was in her 70th year as monarch this year, passed away at Balmoral Castle.
The Queen’s state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey on September 19. Sri Lanka’s national flag is flying at half-mast at all state buildings as a tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, and September 19 has been designated as a day of mourning.
From May 1972 until the country became a republic, Queen Elizabeth II served as Sri Lanka’s head of state. In 1954 and 1981, the Queen made two separate trips to Sri Lanka. Later, the Prince of Wales represented the Queen on trips in 1998, 2004 and 2013 for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting that was held in Colombo. In order to give the public a chance to pay their respects, the body of the Queen will be brought down from Scotland to lie in state in Westminster Hall for four days beginning on September 14 and concluding at 6.30 am on the morning of the funeral.
