Published : 16 Sep 2026, 02:32 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:50 AM
The government has extended Khondker Mohammad Talha’s tenure as Bangladesh’s ambassador to France for another 15 months on contract.
The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification on Monday confirming the extension.
According to the notification, Talha’s new tenure will run from Oct 3, 2026, to Dec 31, 2027.
He has served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to France since 2021 while also serving as the country’s permanent representative to UNESCO.
In October 2025, Talha was elected president of UNESCO’s 43rd General Conference, becoming the first Bangladeshi to hold the position.
A career diplomat, Talha joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1995. Before his current posting, he served as director general of the East Asia and Pacific Wing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka.
He was deputy high commissioner at the Bangladesh High Commission in London from 2014 to 2018 and chief of protocol from 2012 to 2014.
Earlier, Talha served at Bangladesh’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2002 to 2006, where he handled the General Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee, ECOSOC, and different UN funds and programmes.
In 2004, while serving in New York, he was elected vice-chair of the UN Commission on Population and Development.
From 2006 to 2008, he served as deputy chief of mission at the Bangladesh Embassy in Tehran. He then served at Bangladesh’s Permanent Mission in Geneva from 2008 to 2011, overseeing matters related to UNCTAD and the World Trade Organization and coordinating the LDC Group at the expert level.
Talha holds a Master’s degree from the University of Dhaka and an MBA from its Institute of Business Administration.
He also holds a Master’s degree in Foreign Affairs and International Trade from Monash University in Melbourne.
