Bangladesh embassies, consulates and high commissions

[Maisson]

BD foreign missions to be raised to 100

Sunday, 2 February 2020

The number of Bangladesh’s foreign missions will be raised to 100 from 77 within 2021, said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Sunday.

The minister said this while replying to a tabled starred question from Jatiya Party MP elected from Dhaka-4 Syed Abu Hossain in Parliament.

“The Foreign Ministry has planned to open foreign missions in diplomatically important countries gradually,” he said.

The minister said Bangladesh currently has 77 missions in 58 countries.

Recently, it has completed its administrative process to open missions in Bucharest (Romania) and Chennai (India) while the cabinet has approved to set up a consulate general office in Florida (USA), he said.

Besides, the Public Administration Ministry has approved a plan to open missions in Wallington (New Zealand), Dublin (Ireland) Buenos Aires (Argentina), Guangzhou (China), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Frankfurt (Germany).

“It’ll be sent to the Finance Ministry very soon for its approval. A proposal for opening two other missions in Johor Bahru (Malaysia) and Oslo (Norway) is under the consideration of Finance Ministry, too,” the minister said.

Replying to another tabled question from ruling party Benjir Ahmed, MP (Dhaka-20), Dr Momen said the government is implementing a project to construct or procure buildings for 31 missions and residential buildings for ambassadors/high commissioners in various countries by 2024.

The project is being implemented in three phases from 2016, he said.

He also said another project to construct buildings on own lands in Ankara, Bandar Seri Begawan, Islamabad, Thimpu, Berlin, Riyadh and Jeddah is underway.

Besides, the minister said, another process is going on for procuring lands or buildings in Lisbon, Vienna, Athens, Cairo, Hague, Putrajaya, Canberra and Beijing for some other missions, reports UNB.    

[CIWS]

While it is a great news that Bangladesh is expanding its missions worldwide, the same cannot be said for the presence of other countries in Bangladesh, unfortunately. In the last decade, Bangladesh has opened many embassies in different countries, but apart from Brazil, no new country has opened any resident mission in Dhaka. The number of missions in Dhaka has been stuck at 48 since at least a decade! Many countries where we have our embassies abroad, they don't have any mission in BD. For visa matters, Bangladeshis have to visit Delhi or send their documents by post etc. 

Dhaka needs at least 10-15 new foreign missions. Countries such as Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Jordan, and Lebanon really need to consider opening resident missions in Dhaka.

[Darth Nihilus]

On 4/18/2020 at 8:03 AM, CIWS said:

While it is a great news that Bangladesh is expanding its missions worldwide, the same cannot be said for the presence of other countries in Bangladesh, unfortunately. In the last decade, Bangladesh has opened many embassies in different countries, but apart from Brazil, no new country has opened any resident mission in Dhaka. The number of missions in Dhaka has been stuck at 48 since at least a decade! Many countries where we have our embassies abroad, they don't have any mission in BD. For visa matters, Bangladeshis have to visit Delhi or send their documents by post etc. 

Dhaka needs at least 10-15 new foreign missions. Countries such as Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Jordan, and Lebanon really need to consider opening resident missions in Dhaka.

Although we do need other countries to open up missions in Bangladesh, the fact of the matter is that these countries don't have enough of it's citizens residing in Bangladesh for them to warrant opening missions here. Although it does a lot of benefit in terms of diplomatic relations, the presence of embassies are mainly to serve their own citizens in a foreign country. Frankly, there isn't a lot of citizens from those countries living in Bangladesh.

[CIWS]

5 hours ago, Darth Nihilus said:

Although we do need other countries to open up missions in Bangladesh, the fact of the matter is that these countries don't have enough of it's citizens residing in Bangladesh for them to warrant opening missions here. Although it does a lot of benefit in terms of diplomatic relations, the presence of embassies are mainly to serve their own citizens in a foreign country. Frankly, there isn't a lot of citizens from those countries living in Bangladesh.

While you do have a point, I don't think it is always about citizens residing in another country that leads to establishing diplomatic missions. Sometime it is more about having good bilateral relations in different sectors. Plus, once embassies establish themselves, their citizens will feel more 'secure' or confident to visit or work in Bangladesh. A few countries I listed up there did have their missions in Dhaka before but they eventually closed down in the 1990s or 2000s. And I am pretty sure there are some citizens of New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Austria residing in Bangladesh. But for EU citizens they can seek assistance from any other EU-member missions.