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Top diplomatic posts to be filled soon
View(s):Several new appointments of high commissioners and ambassadors are due to be considered by the Parliamentary Committee on High Posts this month.
They include senior career service diplomats Prasad Kariyawasam as ambassador designate to the United States and Karunathilaka Amunugama as ambassador designate to Germany. Among the others are Sarath Kongahage to South Africa and Sudharshan Seneviratne to India.
Mr. Kariyawasam has just completed his term as high commissioner to India, a position he held since December 2009. Having joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1981, he has also held diplomatic assignments in Geneva, Riyadh, Washington, and New York.
Mr. Amunugama, who was Secretary to the External Affairs Ministry, is presently serving as Secretary to the Ministry of Investment Promotion. He has previously served as Ambassador to Thailand, Japan and China.
Mr. Kongahage will complete his term in Germany in June.
A lawyer by profession, he was an active politician for most of his life. He contested the Presidential Election in 2010 as a candidate of the Eksath Jathika Vikalpa Peramuna or the United National Alternative Front. A former Member of Parliament from the United National Party, he now supports the United People’s Freedom Alliance.
Mr. Seneviratne is an academic and a professor of archaeology at the University of Peradeniya. He has not held a prior diplomatic position but served as Director General of the Central Cultural Fund of Sri Lanka.