More than 2,300 mourners will attend including 11 serving prime ministers from around the world, the British government's entire cabinet, two heads of state and 17 foreign ministers.
But there will be notable absences. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is too frail to attend and Nancy Reagan, the widow of Thatcher's great U.S. ally Ronald Reagan, is also unable to come.
Thatcher struck up a close relationship with Reagan during the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and was among the first to discover that Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with".
Draped in the red, white and blue British flag, Thatcher's coffin lay overnight in a 13th-century chapel in Britain's parliament, a forum she dominated for years.
The guest list for her funeral has prompted talk of diplomatic snubbing.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Cameron denied the United States had snubbed Britain by not sending anyone senior from the administration of President Barack Obama.
"Absolutely not," the spokesman said.
Obama is sending George Shultz, a secretary of state for Republican President Ronald Reagan, and James Baker, who had a number of senior roles in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies. No senior serving politicians are attending.
The spokesman also said the Argentine ambassador had refused an invitation to attend, a decision colored by worsening diplomatic tensions over the contested Falkland Islands.
【英国将为撒切尔举办最盛大政治葬礼】相关文章:
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