Bangladesh PM names cabinet after election win

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has named a former commerce minister to steer the country’s troubled economy and kept the defence portfolio for himself as he formed his first cabinet.

Rahman was sworn into office on Tuesday after a landslide election victory, taking over from the interim administration that had led the country of 170 million people since a deadly 2024 uprising that toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina.

The 50-member cabinet announced in a gazette notification issued late Tuesday includes Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, 76, a businessman and veteran lawmaker who has now returned to the finance ministry.

Chowdhury is tasked with reviving growth after months of turmoil that rattled investor confidence in the world’s second-largest garment exporter.

He had previously served in the cabinet of Rahman’s late mother, three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia, but was forced to resign in 2004.

According to media reports, his resignation came after he had granted permission for Taiwan to open a commercial office in Dhaka. Chowdhury has not spoken publicly about the issue.

He was also arrested several times during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, as her government regularly targeted opposition leaders in cases often decried as politically motivated.

Rahman, 60, has appointed himself defence minister, as his government faces a daunting list of challenges including improving security and healing rifts in a country polarised by years of bitter rivalry.

Bangladesh is squeezed between India -- where border tensions are high -- and Myanmar, where clashes have spilled over into frontier areas.

Bangladesh is home to more than a million Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar.

Khalilur Rahman is the foreign minister, an experienced diplomat and former UN official who holds degrees from universities in Dhaka and the United States.

Khalilur Rahman held the security portfolio in the caretaker government and helped mediate trade talks with the United States.

He faces the tricky task of balancing regional relations after ties with neighbour India soured during the interim government, and Dhaka deepened engagement with New Delhi’s rival Pakistan.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar congratulated his counterpart on Wednesday, saying in a statement that they would work together to “advance our cooperation”.

Prime Minister Rahman is expected to chair his first cabinet meeting later on Wednesday.

Other members of the cabinet include veteran politicians, former ministers and lawmakers, as well as academics and several party workers.

Jamaat and the NCP did not attend the ceremony in protest after Rahman’s party rejected the interim government’s request for its lawmakers to take an additional oath under the proposed ‘Constitution Reform Council’. The council intends to amend the constitution following the referendum held alongside the national election.

Citing the recent election result in Bangladesh, a report has highlighted how Gen-Z protests, that have proliferated in various regions, failed to turn demonstrations into political success at the ballot box, or in policymaking.

Writing for the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Joshua Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia and South Asia, noted the Bangladesh protests that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 also were one of the first big Gen-Z protest successes in Asia, and inspired other, similar efforts in Nepal (where demonstrations toppled a Prime Minister), Indonesia (where protests stalled), and other places.

Their impact, wrote Kurlantzick, reached as far as Madagascar, other parts of Africa, and the Caribbean, supposedly part of a worldwide trend of Gen-Z political uprisings, demonstrating that Gen-Z was going to make its impact felt on politics everywhere.

“But while Gen-Z protests have proliferated, they have failed to turn demonstrations into political success at the ballot box, or in policymaking,” wrote Kurlantzick while mentioning that recently the People’s Party, the party with the most support among Gen-Z in Thailand, was crushed in national elections and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan, the ultimate establishment party, saw off challenges from a range of Gen Z-oriented new parties, winning a massive victory.

Agencies