BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari will pay a state visit to China between April 24 and May 2, during which she will attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and the opening ceremony of the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition.

Bhandari, 58, has served as the minister for environment and population and as defense minister.

She became vice chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal (unified Marxist-Leninist) in 2014. In October 2015, she won the presidential election, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency in the country.

Bhandari was re-elected as president for a second term in March 2018.

She has visited China in 1993, 1997 and 2010 as a member of parliament, as minister for environment and population, and as minister of defense, respectively.

Her husband Madan Bhandari, a political leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, died in a car accident in the early 1990s. The couple has two daughters.