Salahuddin will not attend BIMSTEC meeting in India

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed will not be traveling to New Delhi, India to attend the meeting of BIMSTEC home ministers.

Nearly three decades after its founding, the home ministers of the seven-nation regional group BIMSTEC in the Bay of Bengal region are meeting for the first time. The meeting is set to take place on Tuesday.

However, Salahuddin is not joining. Instead, a delegation led by Senior Secretary Manzur Morshed Chowdhury is going.

According to diplomatic sources in Delhi, the home ministers and state ministers from the remaining six member countries are participating in the meeting. Officials from the Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs said this decision was made due to Sheikh Hasina’s presence in Delhi and ongoing tension in relations with India.

Earlier in September, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman also did not attend the outreach session of the BRICS Summit held in Delhi. India had invited him to that session as the chair of BIMSTEC. However, Bangladesh said the invitation was extended not to the prime minister of Bangladesh, but to the chair of BIMSTEC.

BIMSTEC began its journey on 6 June 1997, through the Bangkok Declaration, aiming to serve as a bridge for cooperation between South and Southeast Asia. Its seven member countries are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan.

In April 2025, Bangladesh assumed the chairmanship of BIMSTEC. In the letter sent to the BIMSTEC Secretariat on 4 October, the names of a four-member Bangladesh delegation were submitted for the 12-13 October meeting. The home minister’s name was not on the list.