Sri Lanka’s new Permanent Representative presents credentials to UN chief

The new Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Kshenuka Senewiratne, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday.

Until her latest appointment, Ms. Senewiratne served most recently as Ambassador to Thailand beginning in 2015, and was also accredited to Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. 

She was Additional Secretary of Economic Affairs from January to July 2015, serving concurrently as Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs from January 2014 until January 2015.  Before that appointment, she was the Additional Secretary for Political Affairs, West, United Nations and Multilateral Affairs from 2011 to 2014.

Ms. Senewiratne’s foreign assignments included Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2009 to 2011.  That followed a posting as Director General for Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and the Americas at the Foreign Ministry, from 2008 to 2009.  

She was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2005 to 2008, having previously served as Additional Director General for Economic Affairs at the Foreign Ministry from 2004 to 2005.

With more than 30 years in her country’s foreign service, Ms. Senewiratne also served a stint as Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2004, prior to which she was Director and Acting Director General for Economic Affairs in Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1997 until 2002.

Ms. Senewiratne served as Counsellor and Minister Counsellor at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Belgium from 1993.  Before that, she was Deputy Director and Director of the United Nations Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1993, and Deputy Director of the Ministry’s Publicity Division from 1990 until 1992.

Ms. Senewiratne’s earlier foreign postings included a stint as Third Secretary at Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission in New York from 1988 to 1990, before which she served as Assistant Director in the Foreign Minister’s Bureau from 1985 to 1988 and then as Coordinating Secretary from 1984 to 1985.

A Chevening Scholar at Oxford University in 1996 and 1997, Ms. Senewiratne holds a Master of Arts in international relations from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Salford in the United Kingdom.