As member states do not recognise Kabul’s Taliban regime, Dhaka will send new secretariat chief.
Ending months-long confusion and speculation, seven of eight member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), barring Afghanistan, have agreed to nominate a new secretary general of the regional grouping from Bangladesh.
With the incumbent general secretary, Esala Ruwan Weerakoon of Sri Lanka, set to complete his term in March 2023, there was a confusion as to who would replace him, because as per the alphabetic order it is Afghanistan’s turn to nominate a new secretary general.
The venue of the annual summit meeting of Saarc and the appointment of the secretary general are decided in the English alphabetical order, so this time it was Afghanistan’s turn to nominate the secretary general. But as the seven Saarc member states are yet to recognise the new Taliban-led regime in Afghanistan that came to power in 2021, the issue of appointing a new secretary general had remained unsolved. Nepal has been chairing the regional bloc from 2014 as no new summit has been held since then due to a dispute between India and Pakistan.
Now all member states but Afghanistan have agreed that Bangladesh will nominate a new secretary general, two senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Post.
“We explored several options including giving a term extension to the incumbent or assigning the job temporarily to the senior director stationed at the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu until a new secretary general is appointed or skipping Afghanistan’s turn and allowing Bangladesh to make its nomination, or even naming someone from Nepal,” one of them said.
“Finally we have agreed that Bangladesh should be given the role, which is a less controversial choice and sets the tone for keeping alive the stalled Saarc process,” the foreign ministry official added.
Quoting high-placed government sources, Dhaka Tribune, a Bangladeshi newspaper in English said, “India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have already consented to appoint a Bangladeshi for the post.”
Ending months-long confusion and speculation, seven of eight member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), barring Afghanistan, have agreed to nominate a new secretary general of the regional grouping from Bangladesh.
With the incumbent general secretary, Esala Ruwan Weerakoon of Sri Lanka, set to complete his term in March 2023, there was a confusion as to who would replace him, because as per the alphabetic order it is Afghanistan’s turn to nominate a new secretary general.
The venue of the annual summit meeting of Saarc and the appointment of the secretary general are decided in the English alphabetical order, so this time it was Afghanistan’s turn to nominate the secretary general. But as the seven Saarc member states are yet to recognise the new Taliban-led regime in Afghanistan that came to power in 2021, the issue of appointing a new secretary general had remained unsolved. Nepal has been chairing the regional bloc from 2014 as no new summit has been held since then due to a dispute between India and Pakistan.
Now all member states but Afghanistan have agreed that Bangladesh will nominate a new secretary general, two senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Post.
“We explored several options including giving a term extension to the incumbent or assigning the job temporarily to the senior director stationed at the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu until a new secretary general is appointed or skipping Afghanistan’s turn and allowing Bangladesh to make its nomination, or even naming someone from Nepal,” one of them said.
“Finally we have agreed that Bangladesh should be given the role, which is a less controversial choice and sets the tone for keeping alive the stalled Saarc process,” the foreign ministry official added.
Quoting high-placed government sources, Dhaka Tribune, a Bangladeshi newspaper in English said, “India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have already consented to appoint a Bangladeshi for the post.”
