ছবি: সংগৃহিত
Nearly three decades after its inception, Home Ministers from the seven BIMSTEC member states are set to gather in New Delhi next Tuesday (October 13, 2026) for their inaugural ministerial meeting. However, amid ongoing diplomatic friction between Dhaka and New Delhi, Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed will not be attending the summit.
Instead, a four-member Bangladeshi delegation led by Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Manzur Morshed Chowdhury, will represent the country. Official correspondence sent to the BIMSTEC Secretariat confirmed the decision. This follows a similar stance taken in September when Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, current chair of BIMSTEC, opted out of attending the BRICS Outreach Summit in New Delhi.
Core Agenda: Counter-Terrorism and Regional Security
The main ministerial conference will be chaired by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on October 13, preceded by a Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on October 12 headed by Indian Home Secretary Govind Mohan.
Key issues slated for discussion include:
Counter-Terrorism & Extremism: Formulating joint strategies to combat cross-border terrorism and intelligence sharing among security agencies.
Transnational Crime & Human Trafficking: Strengthening legal frameworks to curb human trafficking, illicit drug trade, money laundering, and terror financing.
Law Enforcement Coordination: Establishing seamless inter-agency cooperation among law enforcement bodies across member nations. A Delayed Milestone
Established on June 6, 1997, via the Bangkok Declaration, BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan—with its permanent secretariat hosted in Dhaka. Bangladesh assumed the BIMSTEC chairmanship in April 2025.
Although the decision to institute a regular Home Minister-level forum was agreed upon during the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu back in 2018, it took eight years to materialize. While Home Ministers from Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand's Deputy Minister will be present, the absence of Bangladesh's political head of home affairs underlines the subtle geopolitical shifts currently unfolding in South Asia.
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