Md Touhid Hossain was sworn in as the Adviser for Foreign Affairs of the Interim Government of Bangladesh on 08 August 2024. He is a former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, his tenure being from December 2006 to July 2009. A career Foreign Service officer, he served in different capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Bangladesh missions abroad from 1981 to 2014, including stints as First Secretary in Delhi and Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata. He was the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to South Africa with concurrent accreditation to Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He retired from service in January 2014.
Hossain has also worked in different capacities at the Foreign Service Academy, including as Principal from 2009 to 2012. He served as governing body member at BIISS, BILIA, Foreign Trade Institute, DSCSC and NDC.
Hossain did his schooling at Rajshahi Cadet College and passed his SSC and HSC with distinction. He received higher education at the Department of History, Dhaka University from where he obtained his Master’s degree being placed First Class First. In 1983-84 he pursued a Diploma in French language from CAVILAM, Vichy, France and a Diploma in International Political Relations from International Institute of Public Administration, Paris, France. He is an ndc from National Defence College, Dhaka. He attended Courses/Seminars at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at Washington, USA.
Since his retirement in 2014, Hossain worked as Adjunct Professor at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and Adjunct Faculty at Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management, Dhaka. He has also been involved in voluntary humanitarian work. For two years, he served as Honorary Country Director of Sonar Bangla Foundation, a US based NGO working in the health sector of Bangladesh. He is co-founder of a Foundation that has set up a high school and managing it in his native village.
Hossain had been a regular writer on current issues related to Foreign affairs and Diplomacy, as also occasionally on social issues. He has written a book on India Bangladesh Relations that was published by Prothoma, Dhaka, that has gone into third print.
Md. Touhid Hossain was born in 1955. He is married, with two daughters. Travelling is his passion and he has been to more than 100 countries. Apart from Bangla, Hossain is fluent in English and has a working knowledge of French and Hindi.
