The contractual appointment of Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen has been cancelled. The Public Administration Ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Monday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday bid farewell to Masud Bin Momen. His contractual appointment was scheduled to end in December this year, however.

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossan and senior officials of the ministry were present at the farewell ceremony.

The previous government extended the tenure of Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen by two more years under a contractual appointment effective from December 6, 2022 or from the date of his joining.

Md. Jashim Uddin, Bangladesh Ambassador to China, is going to be the next Foreign Secretary.

Masud joined as Foreign Secretary on December 31, 2019. As a career diplomat, he has long been serving in different capacities at the MoFA headquarters and Bangladesh missions abroad.

Prior to his appointment as the Foreign Secretary, he had been Bangladesh’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2015.

Before that, he served as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Japan from 2012 to 2015.

He also served as Ambassador to Italy and as Permanent Representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and International Fund for Agricultural Development from 2008 to 2012.

Masud served at the MoFA Headquarters in different capacities. From 2006 to 2008, he was the Director-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dhaka and was responsible for matters related to South Asia, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Human Rights and the United Nations.