Dhaka/New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed will represent India at the SAARC summit in Dhaka on November 12-13.
Ahamed will replace the ex-foreign minister Natwar Singh, who was divested of the External Affairs Ministry portfolio on Monday.
Ahmed, who was on an official visit to Sudan during the Volcker scandal, has since returned to the Capital.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also be attending the two-day SAARC Summit.
According to the Xinhua news agency, Bangladesh is not going to discuss the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline project with India during the SAARC Summit.
Meanwhile, troops patrolled the streets of Dhaka on Monday as the Bangladeshi Capital prepared to host the twice-postponed South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit.
The summit was postponed in January, following the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and again in February after India declined to attend, citing security fears in Dhaka.
The summit comes after a nationwide wave of bombings in August. There were more blasts in October also.
Security lock down
As Army commandos took charge of the city's airport and elite black-robed soldiers searched vehicles, Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said that Dhaka was 'completely ready' to host the 13th summit of SAARC.
Bangladesh says leaders from all seven countries grouped by the association will attend the summit. Around 30,000 police and other forces, drawn from all over the country, are being deployed in the city.
Bombings across Bangladesh on August 17 and October 3 killed four people and wounded at least 115.
More than 500 Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen activists have been arrested, but the group last week issued new threats to blow up police stations outside Dhaka and ordered foreigners working for NGOs and financial institutions to leave the country.
Leaflets found at most of the sites bombed on August 17 carried a call by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen for the introduction of Sharia-based Islamic rule in Bangladesh, the world's third most populous Muslim nation after Indonesia and Pakistan.
As part of a security blanket planned for the summit, authorities declared several streets off-limits to the public. Helicopters carrying armed commandos would patrol the sky and security at the country's borders had been tightened, home ministry officials said.
SAARC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Security forces have begun sweeping Dhaka's two five-star hotels, including the Sheraton, where heads of the SAARC countries will stay.
Metal detectors and close-circuit televisions have been installed. Hotel chefs are busy preparing menus for the guests, while municipal workers are putting fresh coats of paint on roadside walls.
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