Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the USA, Prasad Kariyawasam, has been appointed as the new Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

He will take over from Mr. Esala Weerakoon, who has been appointed as Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism Development.

Kariyawasam, a longtime member of his country’s Foreign Service, took over as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United States on June 23, 2014.

He is also the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to Trinidad & Tobago and Ambassador (designate) to Mexico. 

Having joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1981, he has held diplomatic assignments in Geneva (1983-1987), Riyadh (1989-1992), Washington (1995-1998), New Delhi (1998-2001), Geneva (2001-2004), New York (2005-2008) and New Delhi (2009 – 2014). 

In his assignment as the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka to India in Delhi he was concurrently accredited as the Ambassador for Sri Lanka to Bhutan and Afghanistan. 

From 1998 to 2001 he served as the Deputy High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in India, holding the rank of an Ambassador. 

In Geneva, from 2001 to 2004 he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, while also holding the positions of Consul General of Sri Lanka to Switzerland, Personal Representative of the Head of State of Sri Lanka to the G-15 and concurrently accredited Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Holy See in the Vatican. 

In recognition as the envoy of Sri Lanka to Vatican His Holiness Pope John Paul II bestowed the insignia of the “Grand-Cross of the order of Saint Gregory the Great” to Ambassador Kariyawasam. 

In New York, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and was concurrently accredited as the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Jamaica and The Bahamas, as well as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Chile and Colombia.