The government has decided to appoint new envoys to the United Kingdom, Belgium and Sri Lanka, the foreign ministry revealed yesterday. Ismat Jahan, currently serving as ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, has been made the High Commissioner to UK. She will replace Md Abdul Hannan. Career diplomat Ismat Jahan belongs to the 1982 batch of Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) foreign affairs. She has served as the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York and the Ambassador to the Netherlands.
 Besides, she served at the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi, Bangladesh permanent missions in Geneva and New York in different capacities. Md Shahdat Hossain, the present ambassador to Italy, has been appointed as the new envoy to Belgium and the EU. He will replace Ismat Jahan.
 A career diplomat, Shahdat Hossain is from the 1984 batch of BCS (Foreign Affairs) and has previously served as ambassador to Qatar and high commissioner to Sri Lanka. He also worked at the Bangladesh embassy in Cairo, Bangladesh high commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi and permanent mission of Bangladesh to UN in New York in different capacities.
Riaz Hamidullah, currently serving as director general (Multilateral Economic Affairs Wing) in the foreign ministry, has been made the high commissioner to Sri Lanka, replacing Tarik Ahsan.
This is going to be the first ambassadorial assignment for Riaz Hamidullah, a career diplomat from the 15th BCS (Foreign Affairs) batch.
In his career, he served at the permanent mission of Bangladesh to UN in New York, Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi in different capacities. He also worked at the SAARC Secr etariat as a director.