PM Shehbaz to attend King Charles III coronation in UK next week

• PM Shehbaz Sharif will attend coronation of Britain’s King Charles III on May 6.
• PM will also participate in an event for Commonwealth leaders in London on May 5.
• PM expected to hold bilateral meetings with foreign leaders attending event.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to undertake a visit to the United Kingdom next week to attend the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla on May 6, the Foreign Office said on Friday.

PM Shehbaz will also participate in an event for Commonwealth leaders scheduled to be held in London on May 5. He is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with leaders participating in the celebrations.

The FO said Pakistan and the UK had a long history of relations strongly anchored in the dynamic Pakistani-British community.

“We see the British monarch and the royal family as friends of Pakistan and its people and look forward to further strengthening of ties between Pakistan and the United Kingdom,” it said.

Charles III will be officially crowned king next month, in a solemn religious service eight months after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.

The set-piece coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 6 is the first in Britain in 70 years, and only the second in history to be televised.

Charles will be the 40th reigning monarch to be crowned at the central London church since King William I in 1066.

Outside the UK, he is also king of 14 other Commonwealth countries, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Camilla, his second wife, will be crowned queen.

Charles and Camilla's grandchildren will take part in the ceremony, watched by more than 2,000 invited dignitaries — a quarter of those in attendance in 1953.

— Additional input from AFP