Bio
Ambassador Tariq Karim is a Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and concurrently Advisor to the Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies at Independent University, Bangladesh.
From 2014 to 2020, he served the World Bank as an advisory consultant on South Asia regional engagement and integration.
A career diplomat, he joined the Foreign Service of erstwhile Pakistan in 1967 and moved to Bangladesh’s foreign service after Independence in 1971, serving extensively at home and abroad. After taking early retirement in 1998, he was twice recalled to national service, most notably as Ambassador to the United States from 2001 to 2002 and as Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India from 2009 to 2014, when he held the personal rank and status of Minister of State.
His other senior overseas assignments included Ambassador to Iran, High Commissioner to South Africa, Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Beijing.
At Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he helped resolve long-standing bilateral issues with neighbouring countries and championed sub-regional cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, supporting broader regional cooperation through SAARC and BIMSTEC.
His 2024 book, The Tortuous Evolution of South Asian Regional Cooperation: Bangladesh’s Travails for Sub-Regional Cooperation, reflects his diplomatic experience in the subcontinent. Reviews of the book described it as a tale “navigating South Asia’s labyrinth … of partitioned dreams and united destines” and a “toolkit for the young diplomats”.
He has had a long association with the University of Maryland, George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, Virginia International University, the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, and the National Bureau of Asian Research, all in the United States.
Book Gallery
