Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Sri Lanka)

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Agency overview
Formed	1948
Preceding agency	Ministry of External Affairs and Defence
Ministers responsible	Mangala Samaraweera, Minister Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister
Agency executive	Mrs. C. Vageeshwara, Secretary
Website	Official Website

Politics of Sri Lanka
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (also known as the Foreign Ministry) is a ministry of the Government of Sri Lanka that conducts and manages Sri Lanka's relations with other countries. The ministry is housed at the Republic Building in Colombo fort.

History

The ministry was formally established in 1948 following the independence of Ceylon as the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, coming under the direct control of the Prime Minister of Ceylon. In 1977, J.R Jayawardena's government adapted two separate ministries, forming the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs. A.C.S Hameed was appointed as Cabinet Minister of External Affairs.

Overseas missions

The ministry has 65 overseas missions including 13 High Commissions, a Deputy High Commission, 37 Embassies, 2 Permanent Representations to the United Nations, 11 consulates and a representative office. It provides consular assistance to Sri Lankans traveling, working and studying overseas.

Senior officials

Minister of Foreign Affairs — Mangala Samaraweera
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs — Harsha de Silva
Permanent Secretary — Esala Weerakoon

Divisions

General Administration Division
Overseas Administration Division
Consular Affairs Division
Protocol Division
Public Communications Division
Economic Affairs Division
Finance Division
IT Division
Legal Division
United Nations and Multilateral Affairs Division
South Asia and SAARC Division
Middle East and Africa Division
Europe, Americas and CIS Division
East Asia and Pacific Division

Statutory institutions

Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS)
Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Co-operation (IOMAC)

Ministers of Foreign Affairs

Permanent Secretaries

Incomplete

Sir Velupillai Coomaraswamy,CMG, CCS
Gunasena de Soyza, CCS
N.Q.Dias CCS
Dr Arthur Ratnavel CCS
G.V.P.Samarasinghe, CCS
W.T Jayasinghe
Bernard Tilakaratna, SLOS
Rodney Vandergert, SLOS
Wilhelm Woutersz, SLOS^[1]
R. C. Vendargart, SLOS^[2]
Lionel Fernando, SLAS
G. Wijesiri, SLOS
Nihal Rodrigo, SLOS
B. A. B. Goonetilleke, SLOS
H. M. G. S. Palihakkara, SLOS
Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona
Romesh Jayasinghe, SLOS
Karunatilaka Amunugama, SLOS
Kshenuka Seneviratne, SLOS
Esala Weerakoon, SLOS

References

External links

v t e Foreign relations of Sri Lanka
Africa	Kenya South Africa
Americas	Cuba Mexico United States
Asia	Bangladesh China India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Palestine Philippines Turkey
Europe	Denmark Estonia Germany Holy See Hungary Italy Kosovo Portugal Romania Russia Spain Switzerland United Kingdom
Oceania	Australia
Former countries	Soviet Union Yugoslavia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minister)	Diplomatic missions of / in Sri Lanka List of heads of missions from Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Overseas Service Foreign policy of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies
International organizations	United Nations G77 IAEA IMF ISO Commonwealth of Nations NAM (5th Summit) SAARC UNESCO WHO WTO SAEU BIMSTEC
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website

v t e Ministries of Sri Lanka
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