President Mary McAleese is to pay a courtesy call to PSNI headquarters in Belfast when she visits Northern Ireland on Thursday.
It will be her first such visit and is likely to be seen as symbolically important.
Much of the advance discussion on President McAleese's trip has centred on her plan to visit a school in the Shankill Road area.
That trip to Edenmore Primary School was postponed earlier this year after controversy broke over remarks made by the president about Protestant sectarianism.
President McAleese will be welcomed at the PSNI Headquarters by Chief Constable Hugh Orde, senior management and staff. The president has met Hugh Orde before and PSNI members have been guests at Áras an Uachtaráin.
But what is highly significant is that Thursday's courtesy call will take place at a time when politicians in the Republic, the UK and the United States are saying all sections of society, including republicans, should actively support the police.
At present Sinn Féin does not provide representatives for the policing board; a debate within the party on policing is looming.
President McAleese and her husband, Martin, lived and worked in Belfast during some of the worst years of the Troubles.
