{"id":42587,"date":"2026-02-18T13:16:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=42587"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:16:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:31:55","slug":"bangladesh-pm-names-cabinet-after-election-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/bangladesh-pm-names-cabinet-after-election-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh PM names cabinet after election win"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

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 autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bangladesh is squeezed between India — where border tensions are high — and Myanmar, where clashes have spilled over into frontier areas.<\/p>\n

Bangladesh is home to more than a million Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar.<\/p>\n

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

Khalilur Rahman held the security portfolio in the caretaker government and helped mediate trade talks with the United States.<\/p>\n

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 arch-enemy Pakistan.<\/p>\n

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

Prime Minister Rahman is expected to chair his first cabinet meeting later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Other members of the cabinet include veteran politicians, former ministers and lawmakers, as well as academics and several party workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42589,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42587\/revisions\/42589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}