Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina is set to form the government for a record consecutive third term. This time, with her new term, will come a new set of foreign envoys.
In 2018, 15 new envoys, including US, China, Germany and France joined their respective missions in Bangladesh.
The Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harshvardhan Sringla is expected to leave on a new assignment in Washington next week.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom envoy Allison Blake has been in Dhaka for three years. She is expected to be replaced soon as her replacement is awaiting permission from the government.
It’s clear that the envoys for most of the key foreign nations are new and will have to build up close ties to the government to maintain diplomatic friendships.
“Our foreign relations is matured enough that the policies don’t have to be revised once a new ambassador joins,” former foreign secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain told Bangla Tribune.
“The foreign envoys don’t face many difficulties in Bangladesh because the government wants to cooperate with them,” he added.
Hossain said that the new envoys take some time to get to know Dhaka and its people and their individual set of skills eventually strengthens the relationship adding that if not for acute divergence with certain countries and individuals, it’s a piece of cake for foreign envoys to work in the country.
The Awami League-led Grand Alliance won the Dec 30 general elections by a wide margin and the new Cabinet is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday (Dec 7).