Dhaka finally gets German envoy after ten months' void

Amid diplomatic tension with Berlin, Dhaka finally received after a void of 10 months a new German ambassador, Thomas Prinz, who presented his credentials on Thursday.

Dr Albrecht Conze left Bangladesh on June 1, 2014 to take his new role in Mali, and the next month Germany appointed career diplomat Dr Gabriela Guellil.

But Dhaka did not respond to the agrément, the official naming of a new envoy, for Dr Guellil, then German ambassador in Cyprus, made some "comments going against Dhaka" which displeased the Sheikh Hasina-administration.

What she said was not shared by the foreign ministry officials.

As per the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations 1961, the receiving country can reject any proposed name without showing any reason.

Diplomatic sources said it was not the first time Dhaka-Berlin relations witnessed ups and downs in the last three years.

The first was on June 24, 2012 when the foreign ministry summoned the chargé d'affaires in the German embassy in Dhaka, conveying its disappointment and concern over some of visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's remarks.

In a protest letter, the ministry said it "wishes to record its surprise at the content of a prepared written text and subsequent remarks by the German Foreign Minister immediately following the official meeting".

At a pre-departure joint press briefing, Westerwelle said he and his counterpart talked about a free civil society, freedom of expression, human rights situation in Bangladesh, and concern over the recent killing of activists and bringing their perpetrators to justice.

The foreign ministry, however, said none of these issues were even raised.

Afterwards, Dhaka withdrew then Bangladesh Ambassador Mosud Mannan from Berlin in February 2013 at the German government's request for "violating rules" in terminating some German staff from the Bangladesh embassy.

Foreign ministry officials said Mosud had also created problems regarding paying salaries to the embassy's local staff.