President Biden on Thursday nominated David Slayton Meale, a veteran diplomat with extensive experience in Asia, to be the next ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States to Bangladesh.

The nomination comes as the current ambassador for Bangladesh, Peter Haas nears the end of his term and is likely to depart. Haas’s diplomatic tenure was marred by dubious activities and breaches of well-established diplomatic norms. The arrival of a new ambassador, therefore, is likely to be welcome news for Bangladesh as the nation seeks continued peaceful cooperation with the United States.

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President Biden on Thursday nominated David Slayton Meale, a veteran diplomat with extensive experience in Asia, to be the next ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States to Bangladesh.

The nomination comes as the current ambassador for Bangladesh, Peter Haas nears the end of his term and is likely to depart. Haas’s diplomatic tenure was marred by dubious activities and breaches of well-established diplomatic norms. The arrival of a new ambassador, therefore, is likely to be welcome news for Bangladesh as the nation seeks continued peaceful cooperation with the United States.

‘Meale’: A Career Diplomat

Mr. Meale, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister-counselor, is currently the deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy in Beijing. He previously served as chargé d’affaires there on an interim basis.

Before his posting in China, Mr. Meale was the deputy assistant secretary for trade policy and negotiations in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He also served as the bureau’s director of sanctions policy and implementation.

His prior assignments include associate dean at the Foreign Service Institute’s Leadership and Management School in Washington, deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and counselor for economic affairs at the embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Meale held positions at the State Department focused on monetary affairs and economic policy toward China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Guinea.

Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked in corporate finance at Sprint Telecommunications. Mr. Meale holds a master’s degree from the National Defense University, an M.B.A. from Tulane University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware.

He received the Baker-Wilkins Award for Outstanding Deputy Chief of Mission and has studied Chinese, Ukrainian and French. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Meale would head the American diplomatic mission in Dhaka.

The Impending Departure of Peter Haas

The current US ambassador to Bangladesh, Peter Haas, will soon end his tenure in Dhaka. His tenure was marked by controversy and alleged interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs. The Ambassador repeatedly broke known and established diplomatic norms.

The American ambassador to Bangladesh, Peter D. Haas flagrantly violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the foundation of modern international diplomacy that governs the conduct of envoys abroad, according to officials and analysts.

Adopted in 1961, the convention is considered a canon that not only mandates rules for diplomats to follow but also shapes the fundamental principles of how they should carry out their duties while posted overseas.

Ambassador Haas has repeatedly and brazenly flouted Article 41 of the convention, which bars diplomats from interfering in the internal affairs of the host state. His interactions with opposition politicians over elections, his attempts to exert influence over domestic political matters in Bangladesh, and his alleged efforts to help sway the results of Bangladesh’s national elections in January have all been cited as clear breaches of Article 41, paragraph 1.

Perhaps most controversially, the ambassador sought to facilitate a “dialogue without conditions” among Bangladesh’s three largest political parties ahead of the polls, a move that was seen as violating the convention by injecting himself into the nation’s internal politics.

The State Department has not directly addressed the allegations, nor has Mr. Haas commented publicly on the matter.

A New Chapter

Despite the controversy stirred by the soon-to-depart Ambassador Haas, the United States seems to have decided that diplomatic cooperation instead of confrontation would serve the US’s interests more. Indicative of this was a letter by President Joe Biden, followed by a visit of a high-level diplomatic delegation of the US to Bangladesh, post-election. The delegation reaffirmed the United State’s commitment to continued cooperation with Bangladesh.

While the departure of Peter Haas is a routine ‘changing of the guard’ that happens at an ambassador’s end of term; the arrival of a new ambassador further reinforces the hope that the United States is committed to its policy of cooperation with Bangladesh.

The United States and Bangladesh share a long history of bilateral relations marked by cooperation, trade, and security, one can hope that David Slayton Meale will continue to uphold the US’s policy of cooperation without dabbling into the ‘eyebrow-raising’ activities undertaken by his predecessor.