Ms. Aruni Wijewardane has been appointed as Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with effect from 20th May 2022. She will assume duties at the Ministry on 23rd May 2022.
Ms. Wijewardane has been a Member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service for 34 years. During her career she has held many positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo. Overseas she has served in the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, Sri Lanka High Commission in Malaysia and Sri Lanka Embassy in the Philippines. She served as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Austria and Permanent Representative to the UN Organizations in Vienna.
On secondment from the Ministry, Aruni Wijewardane also served as the Director of the Secretariat of the Policy Making Organs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
Ms. Wijewardane has an MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, where she was a British Chevening Scholar, a Master’s degree from the University of Colombo and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Australia.