President Biden said Friday that he plans to attend the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London later this month — after the White House initially declined to confirm any travel plans.

“Yes. I don’t know what the details are yet, but I’ll be going,” Biden said in Ohio when asked if he would join the service for the 96-year-old monarch, who died Thursday at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.

Biden also told reporters that he had not yet spoken to King Charles III, who gained the throne upon the death of his mother.

“I know him. I haven’t spoken to him. I did not call him,” the president said before traveling to Delaware to spend the weekend at his Wilmington home.

Late Thursday, the president told Daily Mail reporter Nikki Schwab as he left a Democratic National Committee event in Maryland that he would “probably” go to the funeral.

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One en route to Ohio Friday morning that the administration would not get ahead of an official invitation by the British government.

“One of the things that we want to be mindful of, as you all know, there’s a process, there’s a protocol here — official protocol through which leaders are invited,” she said. “So we are not going to get ahead of that protocol.”

Biden on Thursday ordered the US flag over the White House lowered to half-staff to honor the life of Elizabeth II and visited the British embassy to sign a book of condolences.

“She was a great lady. We’re so delighted we got to meet her,” Biden said at the embassy, after releasing a written statement that called her “stateswoman of unmatched dignity.””Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era,” the president and first lady Jill Biden said in that statement.

The queen’s life spanned about 40% of US history — counting the time since the 13 Colonies declared independence in 1776 — and featured close relations between the world’s most powerful English-speaking countries.

Biden would be the first sitting president to attend a British state funeral.

The service for the late queen will be held at Westminster Abbey and is the first state funeral in the UK since the death of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965.

On that occasion, President Lyndon Johnson sent a delegation led by then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe during World War II.

At the 1952 state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II’s father, George VI, the US government was represented by then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson.