President Bidya Devi Bhandari left for Dhaka on Monday morning.

Bhandari is visiting Dhaka on the invitation of Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid to attend a programme organised on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, who Bangladeshi call father of the nation.

Bangladesh is holding a 10-day-long programme to celebrate the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of the liberation of the country from March 17 to March 26.

Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal are among the members of the President’s delegation team to Dhaka.

President Bhandari and her delegation took an 8:40am chartered flight of Nepal Airlines Corporation.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, House Speaker Agni Sapkota, Chairman of National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina and Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel among other high-level government officials saw President Bhandari off at Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday.

The Embassy of Nepal in Bangladesh said in a statement that President Bhandari was received at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by Bangladesh President Hamid.

Apart from participating in the ceremony of the birth centenary of Mujibur Rahman, President Bhandari is scheduled to deliver a statement on Nepal-Bangladesh relations and hold talks with her Bangladeshi counterpart Hamid, according to the embassy.

President Bhandari is scheduled to return home on Tuesday afternoon after a two-day state visit to Bangladesh.

This is the first state visit by Nepal’s Head of State since the country became a republic in 2008 and second in 43 years. Previously, King Birendra had visited Bangladesh in 1978.

Bangladeshi President Hamid had visited Nepal in November 2019 at the invitation of President Bhandari.