Biden to address major Washington funeral for Madeleine Albright

GBNews24 Desk//

U.S. President Joe Biden will address the funeral of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright on Wednesday at a cathedral service featuring hundreds from the Washington political and diplomatic elite.

Albright, the first woman to head the State Department, and one of the major figures of late 20th century US diplomacy, died last month, aged 84.

Reflecting her status on the world stage, her funeral in Washington’s National Cathedral will be packed with more than 1,400 people and carried live on television.

Tributes will be delivered by Biden and by former president Bill Clinton, who appointed Albright to secretary of state, AFP reports.

Former senator Hillary Clinton, who also headed the State Department and unsuccessfully ran for president, will also speak.

Guests will include “current and former US government officials, US presidents, secretaries of state, foreign ministers, ambassadors and State Department colleagues at all levels of the government,” Albright’s office said.

“A large bipartisan Congressional delegation” will also attend.

At the time of her death, Biden hailed Albright as someone who “turned the tide of history” and “defied convention and broke barriers again and again.”

Albright took the helm of the State Department in 1997, dealing with a post-Cold War world in which the United States had emerged as the sole superpower.

As top diplomat, she led crucial discussions with world leaders on arms control, trade, terrorism and the future of NATO.