Bangladesh’s home minister will not attend the first-ever meeting of BIMSTEC home ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday, and a three-member delegation led by the senior secretary at the home ministry will represent the country in his place.
The ministry’s senior secretary Manzur Morshed Chowdhury arrived in the Indian capital on Sunday and will lead the delegation, he told Bonik Barta. He said the home minister could not attend due to a “busy schedule”.
Home ministry sources said the minister has no foreign trip scheduled this week.
BIMSTEC Secretary-General Indra Mani Pandey declined to comment.
Senior officials from the member states will meet on Monday, a day before the ministerial session. India’s home secretary Govind Mohan will chair that meeting, while India’s home minister Amit Shah will chair the October 13 gathering.
Bhutan’s home minister, Lungten Dorji; Myanmar’s home minister, General Ko Ko Oo; Nepal’s home minister, Sudan Gurung; Sri Lanka’s home minister, Chandana Aberathne; and Thailand’s deputy prime minister Songsak Thongsri are expected to attend.
Strengthening regional cooperation against terrorism and cross-border crime is expected to be a priority in the Delhi meet, according to sources. Discussions are also expected to cover human trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorist financing, and to examine ways of improving coordination among the member states’ law enforcement and security agencies.
BIMSTEC was launched on June 6, 1997 under the Bangkok Declaration as a multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation initiative for the Bay of Bengal region. Its seven members are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. The secretariat is in Dhaka, and Bangladesh took over the chairmanship in April 2025.
The sixth BIMSTEC summit was held in Bangkok on April 4, 2025, when Bangladesh’s then foreign affairs adviser attended the group’s 20th ministerial meeting. A concept paper for convening the home ministers’ meeting was approved at that session in Bangkok.