Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari will arrive in Bangladesh on Monday to join the celebrations of Bangladesh’s golden jubilee of independence and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary.
Responding to an invitation from her Bangladeshi counterpart Md Abdul Hamid, Bhandari will arrive to join the double celebration, reports bdnews24.com.
Bhandari is serving as the second president of the country and the first woman to hold office in Nepal. She was preceded by Ram Baran Yadav, who served as the first president of the country following the declaration of a republic in 2008.
Bhandari took office in 2015. She was the vice-chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal. She also performed duties as Nepal’s minister of defence from May 2009 to February 2011.
She is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on a Nepal Air flight around 10 am on Monday. President Abdul Hamid will greet her at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and she will be given a guard of honour. She will be accompanied by Nepal’s foreign minister and the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Bhandari will pay respects to the Liberation War martyrs at the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar on the first day of her visit.
The same day, Bhandari will join a programme at the National Parade Ground as a special guest. Hamid and Hasina will attend the programme as well.
In the evening, the Nepalese president will hold a meeting with Hamid at the Bangabhaban where several memoranda of understanding will be signed.
A cultural programme will be held later in the night at Bangabhaban’s Darbar Hall which will be followed by dinner.
On Tuesday morning, she will visit Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi Road No. 32 and pay tribute to the Father of the Nation.
She is expected to join a programme at the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka in the afternoon before departing Dhaka around 3:30 pm.
President Hamid travelled to Nepal on Bhandari’s invite in 2019.
President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa have already visited Bangladesh, while Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the invitees.