Home Ministry senior secretary to represent Bangladesh at landmark security talks
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed will skip the first-ever meeting of BIMSTEC home ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday amid strained ties between Dhaka and New Delhi.
Instead, a delegation led by Home Ministry Senior Secretary Manzur Morshed Chowdhury will represent Bangladesh at the seven-nation bloc’s security talks,
nearly three decades after its founding.
BIMSTEC Secretary General Indramani Pandey told the media on Sunday that home ministers and ministers of state from the other six member states would attend the meeting.
Senior home ministry officials from the member countries are scheduled to meet on Monday, October 12, a day before the ministerial talks.
Strained ties cited
Several senior Bangladeshi government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to send a delegation led by a senior secretary came amid strained relations between Dhaka and New Delhi.
Last month, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman also skipped the outreach session of the BRICS summit in Delhi, despite an invitation from India in his capacity as the current BIMSTEC chair.
The Bangladesh government said at the time that the invitation had been extended to him as BIMSTEC chair, rather than as Bangladesh’s prime minister.
Founded through the Bangkok Declaration on June 6, 1997, BIMSTEC aims to strengthen cooperation and serve as a bridge between South and Southeast Asia.
Its seven members are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. The bloc’s secretariat is based in Dhaka, and Bangladesh assumed the chair in April 2025.
Minister absent from delegation list
The home minister’s absence is also reflected in an official diplomatic letter sent by the Foreign Ministry to the BIMSTEC secretariat on October 4. The letter named a four-member Bangladeshi delegation for the October 12 and 13 meetings, with Manzur Morshed Chowdhury as its head. Salahuddin Ahmed was not listed.
An urgent letter sent by the BIMSTEC secretariat to member states’ foreign ministries on October 5 said Bangladesh had submitted its nominations on October 4. By the following day, nominations had been received from Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, while Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand were asked to submit their representatives’ names promptly. The secretariat had initially sought nominations on September 2.
Who will attend According to the BIMSTEC secretariat and diplomatic sources in Delhi, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the ministerial meeting, while Indian Home Secretary Govind Mohan will lead the senior officials’ meeting on Monday.
The other participating countries are expected to be represented by Bhutan’s Home Minister Lungten Dorji, Myanmar’s Home Minister General Ko Ko Oo, Nepal’s Home Minister Sudan Gurung and Sri Lanka’s Home Minister Chandana Abeyratne. Thailand will send Deputy Interior Minister Sungsak Thongsri.
The discussions are expected to focus on strengthening cooperation against terrorism and transnational crime, including human and drug trafficking, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Improving coordination among member states’ law enforcement and security agencies will also be on the agenda.
Eight-year wait for first meeting
The decision to hold regular meetings of BIMSTEC home ministers was taken at the bloc’s fourth summit in Kathmandu on August 30-31, 2018.
The Kathmandu Declaration called for stronger cooperation and coordination among member states’ law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies. It also called for meetings of national security advisers to continue alongside the home ministers’ meetings.
No home ministers’ meeting has been held since that decision. In April 2025, the 20th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting in Bangkok approved a concept paper for organising such a meeting. The first ministerial gathering is now being held in Delhi, around a year and a half later.