French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday paid homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi 32.
"I wanted to pay tribute to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who dedicated his life to the fight for the independence of his nation, its language and its culture and for the people of Bangladesh," he wrote in a visitors' book in the French language.
"Surrounded by his family, in the memory of those who fell alongside him, I want to express here the respect and friendship of the French people," the French president wrote.
Accompanied by Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Rehana and her son Radwan Mujib Siddiq, a trustee of the not-for-profit organisation Center for Research and Information (CRI), President Macron spent over an hour at the museum, listened to the ordeals centring the darkest hour in South Asia when Bangabandhu with 19 family members were gunned down.
During his visit to the museum, the French president also watched a hologram on the country’s founding father, sources at the museum said.
Emmanuel Macron arrived in Dhaka on September 10 at the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This was the first visit by any French president in the last three decades.
Former French president Francois Mitterrand visited Bangladesh on February 22-24, 1990.
President Macron held a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday. He joined a banquet hosted by her in honour of the French president on Sunday.
The two leaders witnessed the signing couple of bilateral instruments.
The governments of Bangladesh and France sincerely hoped that the visit of the French president would further elevate the friendly relations between the two countries to a new height.
