PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema was yesterday among several world leaders who attended and witnessed the coronation of King Charles III in Britain’s biggest ceremonial event.
The coronation, which for seven decades, has been a sumptuous display of pageantry, dating back 1, 000 years, has attracted global leaders including Zambia’s President Hichilema who is currently in Westminster Abbey.
President Hichilema said it was a great pleasure and honour to have been invited to witness the coronation of King Charles III and described the evet as historical rooted in longstanding tradition, pageantry and Christian symbolism.
The Zambian head of State recalled that the last coronation took place about 70 years ago.
President Hicchilema said Zambia and the United Kingdom share long term historic ties and that he was looking forward to increased cooperation to create trade and investment opportunities for the benefit of Zambians.
“It was a great pleasure and honour to have been invited to witness this historical event, which is rooted in longstanding tradition, pageantry and Christian symbolism and last took place some 70 years ago. Zambia and the United Kingdom share long term historic ties and we look forward to increased cooperation to create trade and investment opportunities for the benefit of our citizens,” President Hichilema said.
President Hichilema left Zambia for London on Thursday and on Friday, he held a brief bilateral meeting with his Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that in front of a congregation of about 100 world leaders and a television audience of millions, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, slowly placed the 360-year-old St Edward’s Crown on Charles’ head as he sat upon a 14th-century throne in Westminster Abbey.
Charles automatically succeeded his mother as king on her death last September, and the coronation is not essential but regarded as a means to legitimise the monarch in a public way. – REUTERS
