India clears Siam’s appointment as envoy to Delhi
Bangladesh’s decision to appoint Foreign Secretary Asad Alam Siam as its next high commissioner in New Delhi has received India’s formal consent.
Saidur Rahman, spokesperson for the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, told bdnews24.com that India’s foreign ministry informed him by email on Tuesday afternoon that it had issued the agrément, or formal consent, for Siam’s appointment.
The Print reported last week that New Delhi was delaying its formal consent to Siam’s appointment as Bangladesh’s next high commissioner.
A career diplomat who joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1995, Siam is expected to replace current High Commissioner M Riaz Hamidullah in New Delhi within the next few weeks.
The government is sending Hamidullah to Geneva as Bangladesh’s new permanent representative to the United Nations.
Siam served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United States for less than a year before becoming foreign secretary in June 2025.
Before that, he was Bangladesh’s ambassador to Austria from 2023 to 2024 and to the Philippines from 2017 to 2021.
He has also served as Bangladesh’s first consul general in Milan, assistant high commissioner in Manchester, and a junior diplomat in Indonesia and Thailand.
In Dhaka, he served as the foreign ministry’s chief of protocol, director general of the Europe and European Union wing, and director at the foreign secretary’s office.
Dhaka decided to send its most senior diplomat to New Delhi after India appointed former minister and politician Dinesh Trivedi as its high commissioner to Bangladesh.
Relations became strained during the interim government following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024.
After the BNP government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman came to power this year, both sides took initiatives to normalise ties. However, a news conference by Hasina in India complicated the situation again.
India had invited Tarique for a bilateral visit and to attend the BRICS summit as chair of BIMSTEC. Bangladesh did not attend the summit, while a bilateral visit remains pending.
In this context, Siam will work on efforts to rebuild ties and help prepare for a possible visit to India by Tarique.
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