Extraordinary way the Queen 'avoided meeting world leader'
THE Queen once went to extreme lengths to avoid meeting a dictator on a state visit to the UK
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was on an official four-day visit to the country in 1978.
As part of a full state visit, the Communist leader was welcomed by the Queen at London’s Victoria Station and was even pictured riding with her in a state Landau carriage to Buckingham Palace.
But according to royal author Robert Hardman who penned the book ‘Our Queen’, the monarch desperately wanted to keep the meetings only to official engagements.
In fact, she was so keen not to avoid any polite conversation with him, she once hid behind a bush.
Mr Hardman said the Queen was walking her dogs in the palace gardens, when she spotted Ceausescu and his wife Elena heading in her direction. But to avoid meeting the diplomat, she hid behind a bush at Buckingham Palace, reports Express.co.uk.
Her Majesty told a lunch guest about it some years later.
Ceausescu was later tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide, and was executed with his wife by a firing squad.
He served concurrently as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, the president of Romania and the president of the state council from 1974 to 1989.
Before his trial in 1989, Ceausescu ordered his military forces to open fire on protesters killing and injuring dozens.
Next month, the Queen will meet Donald Trump during his first official trip to the UK since he became US President.
Trump will be joined by his wife Melania Trump when he arrives on July 13.