Bangladesh and ASEAN: Towards a Shared Horizon

Apr 16, 2025

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Bangladesh and ASEAN: Towards a Shared Horizon

Bangladesh, with its rapidly growing economy, a young workforce, and a GDP nearing $450 billion, sits at the crossroads of South and Southeast Asia. In an increasingly multipolar Indo-Pacific region, for ASEAN to recalibrate its regional aspirations with a mutually beneficial ally, to expand its economic and strategic footprint in the Bay of Bengal and beyond, Bangladesh emerges as not just a willing partner but a valuable one.

The current interim government in Bangladesh has increasingly turned its attention towards Southeast Asia, signaling a strategic shift in its foreign policy to build stronger diplomatic and economic ties with ASEAN countries. Its recent talks with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore reflect Bangladesh’s growing desire to diversify its international partnerships beyond traditional allies.

ASEAN has a history of engaging with external partners through Sectoral, Dialogue, and Development partnerships. Bangladesh has already established bilateral relationships with most ASEAN members and actively participates in regional forums like the BIMSTEC and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). With ASEAN’s rapidly growing economies, strategic regional influence, and integrated markets, the bloc presents a compelling opportunity for Bangladesh to boost trade and enhance geopolitical relevance.

As a contiguous neighbor to ASEAN, Bangladesh is an active participant in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), drives forward sub-regional mechanisms like BIMSTEC, aims to become an ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner, and contemplates becoming part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The Hon’ble Foreign Adviser’s Talk will focus on the value propositions that Bangladesh can offer through a meaningful and durable partnership with ASEAN. As a founding member of ASEAN, Thailand can indeed play a catalytic role in facilitating and strengthening the partnership envisaged by the government and people of Bangladesh.

Main Speaker: H.E. Mr. Md. Touhid Hossain, Hon’ble Adviser for Foreign Affairs (HFA)

The talk will be followed by a discussion with the following two speakers:

  • Bolbongse Vangphaen (Director-General, Department of ASEAN Affairs, Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
  • Prof. Dr. Sineenat Sermcheep (Director of ASEAN Studies Center, Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University)

About the speaker

H.E. Mr. Md. Touhid Hossain was sworn in as the Adviser for Foreign Affairs of the Interim Government of Bangladesh on 8 August 2024. He is a former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, his tenure being from December 2006 to July 2009. A career Foreign Service officer, he served in different capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Bangladesh missions abroad from 1981 to 2014, including stints as First Secretary in Delhi and Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata. He was the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa with concurrent accreditation to Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He retired from service in January 2014.

Hossain has also worked in different capacities at the Foreign Service Academy, including as Principal from 2009 to 2012. He served as governing body member at BIISS, BILIA, Foreign Trade Institute, DSCSC and NDC. Since his retirement in 2014, Hossain worked as Adjunct Professor at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and Adjunct Faculty at Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management, Dhaka. He has also been involved in voluntary humanitarian work. For two years, he served as Honorary Country Director of Sonar Bangla Foundation, a US-based NGO working in the health sector of Bangladesh. He is co-founder of a Foundation that has set up a high school and is managing it in his native village.

 

Mr. Bolbongse Vangphaen is Director-General of the Department of ASEAN Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand. He previously served as Deputy Director-General overseeing Thailand’s role in the ASEAN Political-Security Community from August 2020 to April 2024.

He began his diplomatic career at the Department of European Affairs in October 1994. He was involved in the organization of the first-ever Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of Asian and European Heads of State and Government, which Thailand hosted in 1996. Since then, he has served multiple stints in various capacities at the Department of International Organizations, Department of Information and the Office of the Foreign Minister. His most recent posting was in Vienna at the Royal Thai Embassy and Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Vienna. His previous foreign assignments were in Dakar, New York and New Delhi, respectively.

 

Asst. Prof. Dr. Sineenat Sermcheep is the Director of the ASEAN Studies Center and a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She is also the chairperson of the Center for Labor Development and Management. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Utah and is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at Chulalongkorn University. She was Associate Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University, and Director of Research Affairs, ASEAN Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University. Her academic interests involve issues related to foreign direct investment, digital economy, trade in services, economic integration, and ASEAN. Her recent publications include Digital Connectivity in ASEAN: Opportunities and Challenges (2024), Digital Trade with the Bay of Bengal Region: Thailand’s Perspectives (2024), Enhancing ASEAN-India Digital Connectivity: Pathway to Shared Prosperity (2023), Digital Investment and the Post-Pandemic Recovery in ASEAN (2022), and China’s BRI and FDI in Mainland ASEAN (2022).

 

When

Wednesday, 3 September 2025 at 16:00 – 17:30

Where

The Siam Society Auditorium

Admission

Free of charge

For more information, please contact

To book your place, please contact Khun Pinthip at 02 661 6470-3 ext 203 or pinthip@thesiamsociety.org

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