Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa

The Audio of the Presentation of the Statement of Government Policy by H.E. the President of Sri Lanka made this afternoon at the ceremonial sitting of the first session of the Eighth Parliament has been recorded from the live stream and uploaded to the Ministry SoundCloud website. It can be accessed at the following link:-

https://soundcloud.com/spokespersonmfasrilanka/he-the-presidents-address-to-the-8th-parliament-1-september-2015

Your Excellencies,

It is my pleasure, this evening, to welcome all of you today to the Republic building, having been sworn in early this week as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the moment Sri Lanka has the dubious honour of having the smallest Cabinet in the world, having had the largest in the world last year.  At the moment we have a Cabinet of five, but the Government will be in place by Wednesday.

Read more: Remarks by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Diplomatic Corps based in Colombo, 28 August 2015

Remarks to the media by

Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs

following call by Ms. Nisha Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State

for South and Central Asia of the US State Department 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombo: 25 August 2015

Good Morning Ladies &  Gentlemen.

I have just concluded discussions with Ms. Nisha Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia and Mr. Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the US State Department. I also welcomed Ambassador Atul Keshap who just assumed duties as the United States’ Ambassador to Sri Lanka.

Read more: Remarks to the media by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and US Asst. Secretaries of State Nisha Biswal and Tom Malinowski

Address by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera

at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture

Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations & Strategic Studies,

Colombo: 24 August 2015

I have the honour today, as the Chairman of the Board of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies, to speak a little about my late cabinet colleague Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar and also introduce our guest speaker, the Rt. Hon. Tony Blair.

Read more: Address by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera assumed duties at the Foreign Ministry today. This is his third stint at the Foreign Ministry, having been Foreign Minister for the first time between November 2005 and January 2007, and for the second time between January 2015 and August 2015.

Read more: Foreign Minister Samaraweera assumes duties

Hon. Mangala Samaraweera MP was appointed today as Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister. Taking oaths in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat, he re-affirmed his commitment to “faithfully perform the duties and discharge the functions of the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the Constitution”.

Read more: Mangala Samaraweera appointed as Foreign Minister

The leader of the United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka before President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat today (21).

After Mr. Wickremesinghe took oaths as the new PM, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP), to work together in the next Parliament.

Read more: Ranil Wickremasinghe sworn in as Prime Minister