BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

Ambassador A F M Gousal Azam Sarker belongs to 1986 batch of Bangladesh Foreign Service (BCS-FA) and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989. He got BA (Honours) and MA degrees respectively in English Literature and Linguistics from Dhaka University obtaining in MA 1st class 1st. He did second Masters in International Policy and Practice (MIPP) in the George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.  During the service, he also got diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy from International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP), Paris and participated in short course in International Law in the Hague Academy of International Law. He also completed a number of training programmes and professional courses at home and abroad. His academic foci, apart from English Literature and Linguistics, were international politics and economics, US foreign policy and US relations with China and South Asia, politics of international organisations and development, peace building, and more. He continues to take interest in the dynamics of international relations, geopolitics, economic development, world history and myths, culture and civilization, Science, technology and Innovation (STI), and creative writings. He is fluent in English and French.

In his long diplomatic career, Ambassador Sarker served in various capacities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs including as Director General (Europe) and Director General (International Organisations). He served in Bangladesh Missions in Paris, Kathmandu, Cairo, Hong Kong SAR, Stockholm, Beirut, and Tehran. He served as Bangladesh’s Consul General in Hong Kong SAR, and Ambassador to Sweden, Lebanon, and Iran with concurrent accreditation to all other Nordic countries, Tajikistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. He also functioned as a delegate to the UNESCO, as a participant in SAARC meetings including of SAARC PTA negotiations, as part of preparation, in the Pre-COP 15 conference and climate change issues, as D-8 Commissioner of Bangladesh, for D-8 Summits, and as DG (IO), for numerous OIC Foreign Ministers meetings (CFMs), three OIC Summits, and two Commonwealth Summits (CHOGMs). After successful work of hosting the 45th OIC-CFM in Bangladesh in 2018 as the Chief Conference Coordinator, he chaired most of the OIC meetings of the Senior Officials and PRs in the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah for nearly a year including two meetings on OIC reforms. He attended and represented Bangladesh in a number of international conferences and meetings.

He played important role in the preparation for Bangladesh claim of the continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal, the framework agreement with the Russian Federation on the Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant Project (RNPP), and in the process of the ICJ case on Rohingya genocide.

Ambassador Sarker has currently been serving as the Chairman, Bangladesh International Institute of strategic Studies (BIISS) since the beginning of August 2023.