Bhutan King Wangchuck due Dhaka on Monday: FM

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan is likely to arrive in Dhaka on Monday.

The four-day visit by King Wangchuck will include the signing of four memoranda of understanding and pacts, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin will welcome King Wangchuck at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday. He will then be given a guard of honour.

The king’s entourage will include the queen, the royal family, ministers, and other high-ups of the Bhutanese government.

King Wangchuck will pay his tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and visit the memorial museum at Road No. 32 in Dhanmondi.

A courtesy visit with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has been scheduled for the evening on Monday. The MoUs will be signed in the presence of the prime minister.

During the king’s visit, the governments will sign three MoUs and renew a pact, said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud.

The establishment of a burn and plastic surgery unit in Thimphu, a special economic zone dedicated to Bhutan in Kurigram and technological cooperation to ensure consumer protection were part of the MoUs, the minister said.

An existing pact in the cultural sector would be renewed, he added.

On the Independence Day, the Bhutanese king, whose country was the first one to recognise Bangladesh at its birth, will pay his homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War.

He is likely to visit the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery on the same day and meet President Shahabuddin in the evening.

The king’s itinerary includes a visit to the Padma Bridge and the Bangladesh Special Economic Zone in Narayanganj’s Araihazar on Wednesday.

He is scheduled to fly back on Thursday after visiting the Special Economic Zone in Kurigram.