As the term of Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India, Riaz Hamidullah, nears its end, Dhaka’s top diplomat and serving Foreign Secretary, Asad Alam Siam, is likely to replace him in a posting that is considered one of Bangladesh’s most important diplomatic assignments.
Siam has been foreign secretary since June 2025. He had earlier served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Washington during the tenure of the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus. Riaz Hamidullah is likely to be appointed as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva.
A career diplomat, Siam joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1995. Throughout his diplomatic career, he has served extensively both at home in Bangladesh and abroad.
As India and Bangladesh navigate a transitional phase in their relationship, Siam’s appointment and posting in India will be significant. Dhaka and New Delhi ties have been under scrutiny, with Bangladesh’s agreements with China, especially the Teesta master plan and Mongla Port redevelopment, seen as a pivot towards China from India’s point of view.
In another significant move, India has also appointed a new High Commissioner to Bangladesh—a senior politician from West Bengal, Dinesh Trivedi—who has served as Union Minister for Railways and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in the union government.
Trivedi arrived in Bangladesh via the Benapole-Petrapole land border from West Bengal on June 12. He succeeded Pranay Kumar Verma, who served as Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh for four years until May this year.
Top Bangladeshi diplomat Ambassador Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, the current permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York, is likely to become the next foreign secretary of Bangladesh. Meanwhile, former Amnesty International chief Irene Zubaida Khan has been appointed as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.
Irene Khan is a well-known international figure and teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Khan was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression in June 2020 and is the first woman to hold this post. Khan has also been a consulting editor of the Daily Star, Bangladesh’s largest English newspaper.
Khan has received several awards, including the Sydney Peace Prize in 2006, for her contribution to human rights. Born in Bangladesh, she studied at Manchester University and Harvard Law School. She is also related to Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, she and Dr. Zubaida Rahman, Tarique Rahman’s wife, are cousins.
