YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. The funeral ceremony of Former French President Jacques Chirac has started in Paris.

Nearly 80 world leaders have gathered in the French capital for the ceremony.

Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan is also in attendance.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Belgian PM Charles Michel, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Albert II of Monaco and others are also participating in the funeral.

Military honors will be paid to Chirac at the Hotel des Invalides in central Paris, where he has been lying in state, before his coffin is taken in a procession to the church of Saint Sulpice.

President of France Emmanuel Macron is expected to deliver a eulogy.

Chirac, who died last week at 86, is to be buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris, in a plot next to his daughter Laurence, who died in 2016.

After the funeral French President Emmanuel Macron will host the visiting leaders at a lunch at the Elysee Palace.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan