Ambassador Tariq Karim is currently Advisor to the World Bank for Regional Integration, South Asian Region. Prior to taking up this assignment, he was Bangladesh’s immediate past High Commissioner to India with the rank and status of a Minister of State, from August 20019 until October 2014.
He has played a seminal role in qualitatively improving the tone, tenor and substance of Bangladesh-India relations, dramatically reconfiguring them for the better. Bringing to bear a strategic vision for the region and advocating a holistic approach to the resolution of long-festering issues, he has been singularly successful in forging the architecture of a new cooperative relationship between the two countries. He also successfully initiated the process for embarking on sub-regional cooperation by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal for water management on a basin-wide basis. During his current tenure, he has successfully shepherded the initiation of power trade between Bangladesh and India, and facilitating talks between Bangladesh, Bhutan and India for working towards the setting up of an energy security architecture in the South Asian sub-region and road and river connectivity.
His earlier ambassadorial assignments were in Washington, Pretoria and Tehran. He has served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Beijing and New Delhi, and in different capacities earlier in Tehran, Bonn, Bangkok and London.
Ambassador Karim was at the University of Maryland from 1999 to 2000 as Distinguished International Executive in Residence, and subsequently from 2002 to 2004 as Consultant/Senior Adviser in the IRIS Centre of the University of Maryland (while at the same time pursuing post-graduate studies in Government & Politics). He was also adjunct faculty member teaching courses in Government & Politics, International Relations, and Business & Politics at the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Virginia International University, respectively, from 2004-2008.
He has played a seminal role in qualitatively improving the tone, tenor and substance of Bangladesh-India relations, dramatically reconfiguring them for the better. Bringing to bear a strategic vision for the region and advocating a holistic approach to the resolution of long-festering issues, he has been singularly successful in forging the architecture of a new cooperative relationship between the two countries. He also successfully initiated the process for embarking on sub-regional cooperation by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal for water management on a basin-wide basis. During his current tenure, he has successfully shepherded the initiation of power trade between Bangladesh and India, and facilitating talks between Bangladesh, Bhutan and India for working towards the setting up of an energy security architecture in the South Asian sub-region and road and river connectivity.
His earlier ambassadorial assignments were in Washington, Pretoria and Tehran. He has served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Beijing and New Delhi, and in different capacities earlier in Tehran, Bonn, Bangkok and London.
Ambassador Karim was at the University of Maryland from 1999 to 2000 as Distinguished International Executive in Residence, and subsequently from 2002 to 2004 as Consultant/Senior Adviser in the IRIS Centre of the University of Maryland (while at the same time pursuing post-graduate studies in Government & Politics). He was also adjunct faculty member teaching courses in Government & Politics, International Relations, and Business & Politics at the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Virginia International University, respectively, from 2004-2008.