Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner-designate of Sri Lanka to Australia, Yasoja Gunasekera, assumed duties in Canberra on April 22.
In a letter to Ms Gunasekera, the Federation of Sri Lankan Organisations of Queensland congratulated her on her appointment on behalf of the Sri Lankan community.
“Our federation is the apex body for seven incorporated community organisations, representing the Sri Lankan community in Queensland at all levels of government. You will be pleased to know that we are the only known federation of Sri Lankan community organisations in Australia,” the letter stated. See full text of letter below.
The High Commissioner outlined the Sri Lanka Government’s priorities and noted the long-standing and friendly relations between the two countries and the need to strengthen bilateral ties and further promote tourism, trade and investment and strongly forge people-to-people ties.
Ms Gunasekera highlighted the importance of ensuring the seamless delivery of consular services and underscored the well-being of the Sri Lankan community in Australia as a top priority. She reiterated the importance of collective efforts by the entire Mission in achieving these objectives.
Ms Gunasekera is a career Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officer with more than 29 years of experience. She topped the Sri Lanka Foreign Service Batch of 1996 and has served in various capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, the most recent being as the Additional Secretary for East Asia; Middle East and Africa. She served as Ambassador to Jakarta, Indonesia and High Commissioner to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and established the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Guangzhou, China. She also served at Sri Lanka Missions in New Delhi, India and in New York and Washington D.C. in the United States of America.
She holds a Master’s degree in Foreign Affairs and Trade from Monash University, Australia, and an LLB Degree in Law from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. She is a past pupil of C.M.S. Ladies’ College, Colombo. (With reporting from Newswire)
