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High Posts Com. clears 14 career diplomats for appointments abroad
View(s):Fourteen career diplomats have won the Parliament High Posts Committee’s approval for appointment as Heads of Mission abroad, a Foreign Affairs Ministry statement said yesterday.
With these appointments, the percentage of career diplomats heading Sri Lanka’s overseas missions has increased from 36.57 percent to 46 percent, the statement said. Sri Lanka maintains 52 embassies and high commissions overseas.
The names had been nominated by President Maithripala Sirisena. Accordingly, Kshenuka Senewiratne will go as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York and Rodney M. Perera as ambassador to the United States.
Grace Asirwatham will be sent as ambassador to Belgium and the European Union; A S Nakandala as ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Yasoja Gunasekara as Ambassador to Indonesia
J.A.S.K. Jayasuriya will be Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Thailand, Pradeepa Saram will represent Sri Lanka in Bahrain, Shobini Gunasekera will head the mission in the Philippines and Saroja Sirisena will be ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
O.L. Ameerajwad will be ambassador to Oman, M.J.P. Jayesinghe will be ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Waruna Wilpatha will represent Sri Lanka in Israel, while Sashikala Premawardhane will go to Singapore as high commissioner and Rizvi Hassen to Turkey as ambassador.