The King and Queen left on a special aircraft from the air force base at Subang airport at 9.30pm after a ceremonial send-off with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun and deputy foreign minister Kamarudin Jaffar in attendance.

As part of the special visit, the royal couple will pay a courtesy call on King Charles III on Wednesday.

Sultan Abdullah has been friends with King Charles III for more than four decades and played polo together during their youth at various levels of international tournaments.

On the same day, the king and queen are also scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of Battersea Power Station, a Malaysian real estate investment project in London.

King Charles III succeeded his mother Queen Elizabeth II who died at the age of 96 on Sept 10. She was England’s longest-reigning monarch, having ruled since 1952.